Sacrifice

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48

I love when God puts something on my heart. Today, I really feel that God has been leading me towards a better understanding of sacrifice. After reading from John C. Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, I can see many areas of my own life that have been, or should be, sacrificed in order for Gods will to take place in my life.

In Maxwell’s book, he talks about Martin Luther King, Jr., and Condoleezza Rice, and the many sacrifices they made throughout their lives. King made the ultimate sacrifice and changed our countries views on segregation. Rice constantly made sacrifices in her career that at first seemed crazy, but then led to much bigger and better opportunities. She wanted at first to become a concert pianist, and even attended school with this goal in mind. However, many sacrifices and amazing career options later, she became the U.S. Secretary of State, and has unlimited job opportunities now that her run in the White House is over. She sacrificed her lifelong dream, something that not many people would be willing to do. But in place of that, she became so much more.

I always aim to be in a leadership position. Whatever setting I am in, whether it is at work, church, the coffee stand, life group, etc., I always want to lead. This isn’t because I think I am amazing or because I think people have a lot to learn from me. It’s more because I really want to change things, and I know that God provides me with the strength and ability to do that. I like action, and I get frustrated with leaders who are content with staying in their current state of mediocrity. Because I want to be in leadership, I know that I can only do my best if I continuously seek God’s will at every turn I make, with every decision I am faced with. I can’t last long without Him. Maxwell says “The heart of good leadership is sacrifice. If you desire to become the best leader you can be, then you need to be willing to make sacrifices in order to lead well.” He then goes on to say “Every person who has achieved any success in life has made sacrifices to do so.” After reading that, I tried to think of times when I have made sacrifices in order to move up in leadership, or to become closer to God. A big one that stands out is giving up my old life, the one where I went out dancing all the time, and got drunk, and cussed, and did drugs, and slept around. That stuff was fun for me, I loved it. It really seems ridiculous now that I could possibly find fulfillment from those activities, but I did. So, while it’s obvious to me now that my new life is a billion times greater and more fulfilling, at the time is was pure torture. My friends were still doing all of that stuff, and I felt so out of touch when I would say “no, I can’t do that anymore.” I lost some friends, and it sucked. But God has restored some of those friendships, and brought me more amazing friends than I ever thought I would have.

Another sacrifice is time at home with my family. Family is very important to me, but God wants us to care for and about many, many more people. Nate plays drums on Sundays, which requires him to be at practice every Thursday night. He also plays drums at youth group on Wednesday’s…another night of sacrifice. I want to start a girl’s bible study, which equals another night of sacrifice. Sometimes it sucks to think about another night spent away from my boys, but I know that because of that sacrifice, my relationship with God and with my girl friends will become so much stronger.

Finally, a recent sacrifice Nate and I both made was to stop drinking. Neither of us had drank to the point of drunkenness in a long time, but we still considered it ok to drink socially as long as we were careful. Well, we realized this is really not ok, and there are several reasons why we came to this conclusion, but it really boils down to God telling me one night that we need to be set apart. The rate that we were going, all of our get-together with friends soon became centered around alcohol, and at one point there were more intoxicated people than sober…it was pretty much a party. The line that had separated us as Christ-Followers from the rest of the world disappeared and I realized that the slippery slope I had slid down was now compromising God’s will in my life, as well as my ability to lead. That’s when Nate and I decided to sacrifice that aspect of our life completely. It was hard, mainly due to the fact that many of our close friends were still drinking, and we didn’t want them to think that we were judging them. We also didn’t want to be left out of get-togethers simply because we didn’t want to drink anymore. After a few conversations with several of our friends, we found out that a lot of them were feeling the same way. While not all of them feel the need to give up drinking completely, they do realize things were going too far. It is such a relief to know that we are not alone, and that God trusted us enough to speak to our friends about our actions. I am so glad God gave me the words to speak. If I had run my mouth on my own time, the results would not have been as good.

While drinking might not be bad, getting drunk is. Even though Nate and I didn’t have a problem with that, we knew that was something we needed to let go of completely in order to experience God’s best. Maxwell says “Effective leaders sacrifice much that is good in order to dedicate themselves to what is best.” We sacrificed drinking, which was fun for us, in order to dedicate our lives to seeking out Gods best for ourselves and for our friends. The rewards from this have been much greater and long-lasting than a simple alcohol buzz.

Because Nate and I are in leadership in church, and Nate at work, we are expected to live to higher standards than if we were not. Maxwell states “When you have no responsibilities, you can do pretty much anything you want. Once you take on responsibility, you start to experience limitations in what you can do. The more responsibility you accept, the fewer options you have.” By gaining responsibility in our respective leadership roles, we have to let go of certain things we used to do. Drinking would be a good example. Also, when Nate was an entry level employee it was easy for him to call in sick so he could hang out with friends, and management didn’t question him about it. He can’t do that now that he is in management. He is expected to be at work, on time, every time. If he is late to work, his boss wants to know where he was and why he was late. Robert Palmer, a business executive, states “If you want a management job, then you have to accept the responsibility and accountability that goes with it.” This is so true, not just in business management, but in every area of leadership.

I will bring up drinking again. I mentioned that not all of our friends feel the need to give up drinking, which is totally fine. Another thing Maxwell says is “For every person, the nature of the sacrifice may be different. Everyone who leads gives up other opportunities. Some people have to give up beloved hobbies. Many give up aspects of their personal lives. Some, like King, give their actual lives. The circumstances are different from person to person, but the principle doesn’t change. Leadership means sacrifice.” Just because we felt called to give that up, doesn’t mean everybody should. Everyone does have something they can sacrifice that will bring them closer to God, and allow Him to work in their lives.

I am not perfect, and I only want to be the type of leader that God wants me to be. I know in order to do this, I must be willing to sacrifice things from my life that hinder my relationship with God, and those that prevent me from experiencing opportunities to move up in leadership. Because of this, I must continue to ask God what He asks of me, and what I can give to Him to make us closer.