I’m adding sacrifice to my Lenten Journey. It’s not what you think. Recent usage has come to mean “giving something up, like: He sacrificed cable to get Netflix. OR She sacrificed lattes for Lent.
I’m going with the old The Middle English definition: offering something valuable as an act of worship.
When I put it like that, I doubt if lattes are good worship tools. How about time?
Five minutes a day? Doing an act for someone else?
So today, I stopped and visited with an elderly little couple at Starbucks (I told you I wasn’t giving up lattes.) They were complete strangers to me. I picked them because they were staring into space in opposite directions. They told me they’d been married 63 years. She said “We never fight.” He claimed they fought all the time. A lively, funny discussion followed.
The whole place was laughing and making comments across tables when I left.
I’m not sure that interaction counted as a sacrifice.
Before Morning Breaks 
I am in awe of those couples who have spent a lifetime together. My parents celebrate 60 years together in 2012. They have their fights and disagreements. Mom says nothing is perfect. But all my life I have rarely seen them in those “disagreeable” moments.
In my work, I have had to be a good listener. I work with people with a variety of disabilities and many often just want someone to hear them and acknowledge them. And I give everyone a smile when I greet them. Smiles always make me feel a bit of warmth, so I want to give that to others. You never know when that one smile or lending an ear could make someones day a little better.
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Thanks Roxie and Sharon, it turned out to be fun and a real surprise. I can think of some instances when listening to some one wrangle on and on has been a real sacrifice.
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What a wonderful story! There are so many folks out there that just need a good listener and they will brighten the world for you and others. How lucky you were to have met them.
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One of the components of sacrafice is a desired outcome. You sacrifice the virgin to get the dragon to stop eating your sheep. You sacrifice a dove to get God’s good will for your new-born son. When you sacrifice just as an act of obedience – well, you get the good feeling that you are doing God’s will. Surprisingly, His will is that you be happy. Sometimes you won’t be happy until you give up someting you really, really want. Like that toxic boyfriend, or that nasty gambling habit.
If you sacrifice lattes because you want to lose weight anyway, are you doing God’s will? Maybe yes, maybe no. And then there are the sacrifices that God doesn’t want you to make. Even the Catholic church will tell pregnant women and nursing mothers not to fast on Fridays and during Lent. God wants us to be healthy and happy and enjoy him forever.
So your sacrifice of a few minutes of time to chat with a silent old couple was a blessing for everyone in the room. Pretty doggone good return on your sacrifice. Keep it up! You are my hero!
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Thanks Lisa,
Funny how stories are all around us, it just takes time to slow down and listen to them. Who knew…? Oh, I guess the poets already figured it out. Those tricky writers.
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You tell the best stories, Barb!
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