Seeing Past the Sacrifice

The other day I was thinking about a job I'm doing to earn a little cash for various family extras: camp for the kids, driver's ed, camping trip... While the job isn't particularly what I aspire to spend my time doing, it is temporary and will provide the funds for out-of-budget expenses. For a brief moment, I was tempted to complain about the job. Not my cup of tea, exactly. Hard. Strenuous. Tiring.

My pity party was stopped short by a man on the radio who was talking about seeing past the sacrifice. I missed most of the program, but caught enough to make me think. Sure this job is a sacrifice. But it is also a temporary gig. A means to provide something. Just a job.

It occurred to me that my mounting problem was focusing on the sacrifice itself, not the reason for it. When I focus on the sacrifice, I become unhappy. A daunting task, however, should never be the focus. That is a breeding pool for self pity, resentment, discontent.

The focus ought to be on the result, or reason, for the sacrifice. Do I want my kids to experience camp? Yes, I do. Will it be nice to have another driver in the house? Yes, it will. Is the planned camping trip important for my family? Yes, it is.

The results of the sacrifice are worthwhile. They may not be necessarily needful, but worthwhile nonetheless.

I think about another, greater sacrifice that carried a much more weighty result. An eternal result, in fact. It involves a cross and a willing subject. Jesus. When I think about the sacrifice he was willing to make on behalf of mankind, my own small, mostly simple sacrifices seem so easy. So piece of cake. So walk in the park.

Do I really have the audacity to complain in light of what someone else, namely God, has done for me? Something needful. Necessarily needful.

I wonder how different things would be if Jesus had just focused on the cross and what he had to endure. While he acknowledged the cross, even grieved it, he remained focused on one thing: the reason for his sacrifice. It was me. It was you. He saw past the sacrifice. He saw salvation.

It helps me to remember that. It helps me to take my focus off the sacrifices I make for my family. We all make them. We all do things that we would rather not. Why? Because it is necessary to get the desired result. If the sacrifice isn't going to benefit anyone, why even do it?

Today I go to the job again. I consider the alternative. No camp, no driver's ed, no trip. Yes, the sacrifice is worth it. I chose it. I will not complain. Neither will I focus my energy on the sacrifice. Before I know it I'll be sitting around a campfire with my family. Making S'mores. Laughing. Talking. Relaxing. Enjoying.