SACRIFICE — A NEW PERSPECTIVE

Our general understanding of sacrifice is to give something up. We associate sacrifice with our forgoing something that we want—an act of pure altruism. One dictionary definition is:

“A loss sustained by relinquishing something at less than its presumed value.”

Another, however, is:

“The forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered having a greater value or claim.”

It is this latter definition of sacrifice that I contend is the more accurate and appropriate of the two, particularly so when we come to claim any success that we want to in life.

Christ on the cross is the ultimate sacrificial icon. Other, more usual acts of sacrifice include going to war for one’s country, forsaking one’s career for the benefit of the spouse’s, leaving a progressive career to look after the children, abstaining from life’s so-called “pleasures” to achieve athletic excellence, and remaining faithful in a loving relationship.

In truth, a sacrifice is always something that you make so that you may receive something else of greater value, with, perhaps, two exceptions:

1. Sacrifice forced upon you as the “sacrificial lamb” in some bizarre ritual (or perhaps more familiar to you, in the corporate world!); and
2. Sacrifice due to your own weakness born out of mental dis-ease.

And even in this latter case you find there is a pay-off. The “victim” who wants a reason to resist taking responsibility for his/her life is able to blame another for his/her lot. You are mentally dis-eased to the degree to which you are not in control of your emotions. If, then, you sacrifice because you are made to feel guilty—forgo a brilliant career to stay at home and look after the kids, not because you want to, but because your spouse gilt trips you—this is your weakness, the pay-off for which is the appeasement of your guilt.

If asked, what is the greatest sacrifice you can make, you may reply to die for someone or some worthy cause. Is it, however? If you believe in life after death and you are right, then life goes on. Further, most subscribers to this view believe that life after death will be better. If you do not believe in life after death, and you are right, you will remain dead. In either case, who is to say that giving yourself unconditionally in this life to another or to a worthy cause, come what may, is not a greater sacrifice? In the same way, suicide is not a brave act. The pay-off is relief from the problem(s) that one is beset with. Surely, it is braver to choose life and resolve to overcome the problem(s). it is often said that God does not give us problems we cannot handle.

The greater benefit received from our sacrifice may often appear to accrue to others—giving one’s life in war so that others may survive—and this is true if you fix your gaze on the material benefits alone. If, for example, you believe that you have life because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, the material benefit—sentient, corporeal life—has clearly accrued to you. However, the benefit to Christ was a spiritual benefit, both intangible and immeasurable, and, therefore, understated. And such immeasurable benefit is available to us all:

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”

- Matthew 19:20

They accrue to soldiers of war, parents, and others who apparently sacrifice something for the benefit of others. Feelings of pride, satisfaction, joy and so on from seeing or otherwise knowing that their sacrifice has aided the progress of someone or something they hold dear are the intangible, immeasurable feelings of success; their success in aiding the others’ success.

As a parent, what material value would you place on your child’s first step (regardless of the fact that without it, they would never have walked); their first utterance of mummy or daddy; their first (and probably last!) acting role in the school play, in which they nervously, though bravely, recited their lines by rote; or, indeed, the day they themselves became parents?

The pride and satisfaction I know my parents received, for example, in seeing my books published is immense. It beats the pants off showing the black and white’s of my bare bum aged three. No amount of material wealth could compensate for their success in my siblings or me. Their kids have turned out all right! Indeed, some are able to accept their lot in life—being at ease with the belief that they themselves have underachieved—knowing that they get a second and third chance through their children and even their grandchildren. The success of their offspring is somehow their own.

Sacrifice is made to either rid yourself of the symptoms of mental dis-ease—guilt, pity, anger etc—which is your pay-off, or to obtain a benefit of greater value compared with that which you have sacrificed. This benefit may be calculated in material or non-material currency. Your success may be measured by the extent of your sacrifice. The most successful people would be those who, in their lifetimes, have made the greatest sacrifices for the benefit of others, notwithstanding any benefit (material or non-material) that they themselves may receive. As pilot officer, V A Rosewarne, observed in his last letter to his mother, published in the English newspaper The Times on 18 June 1980.

The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice.

Success when viewed in this way provides us with a whole new perspective on what it really is. No longer are we inclined to see it in purely financial terms. And so, the likes of Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior spring to mind as readily as those of Rockefeller, Bill Gates and Ross Perot.

Using sacrifice as our measure of success, Jesus Christ would appear to be the most successful person known to mankind. It is appropriate, therefore, that his crucifixion is the icon of sacrifice; and thereby, success.

What are you prepared to sacrifice to achieve your success?