Sacrifice...

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"  John 15:13

Sacrifice is a word that ranges in limited definition from getting up early every morning to provide for your own all the way to surrendering your life for another.  Yet in my experience, these fall short of all it really means.  So I give you one scenario that few could even fathom given the limited interpretation of love most adhere to.

Imagine you meet someone you find is perfect for you.  You court each other and in time, fall deeply in love.  You share moments and your hearts are set and established to share a life.  Yet one day, the woman you love is offered an opportunity of a lifetime that does not include you...what then?  Do you stand in her way because your love for her tells you that she is better off with you?  Or does your love extend beyond yourself enough to let her go on without you because all that she ever dreamed of is waiting for her to simply say "yes".

After seeing this scenario play out time and again, I can tell you that many would choose to stay together believing this to be the path that "love" would have them take but consider the future of these two.  Consider that flowers and candy eventually turn into relationship practicalities and practicality will in turn, provide her with justified reasons to regret not accepting that opportunity.  A silent regret that will haunt them both for the rest of their lives.  A silent regret that slowly will begin to eat away at their love until they are living more so as accustomed humans when they began as two souls in love.

Real sacrifice is not just something you give up and it's not just something you do.  Real sacrifice manifested in love is the denial of self want to make way for another's need and I will tell you that it is one of the hardest challenges one will ever face.  To deny oneself of love for the sake of another is THE greatest marker love has.  It cannot be surpassed by gifts, money or deeds as it is driven by passion.  The passion to want everything for the one you love.  The passion to protect them at all costs.  The passion to please them with all that you are.  This drives that sacrifice to the point where your needs take a backseat to theirs and in a perfect union...both share in the same.

I have surrendered gold for the sake of another more than I would have liked to and in the moment, the pain of it is something akin to voluntarily throwing yourself into a burning pyre.  Yet as time passes and you see the fruit of your sacrifice, you then come to realize that none other could ever replicate the gift you have given the one you loved.  No one will ever know it and the one you let go may never understand it but you and God will.  That will be enough...

Would I do it again if needed?  It is no longer a choice...

~Moses