Brown's First Rant: Sacrifice

[Brown]

This is my first rant, take it easy on me, but I just wanted to see what you guys thought of it because I have really been thinking about this myself for a while now.

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Sacrifice. We all make sacrifices in our lives, but for what worth. We all think "Hey, I could sacrifice these few hours of game time of Guild Wars 2 to hang out with my friends." or something of the sort. But seriously, what is "sacrifice" what is worth sacrificing something for the other. Everyday we sacrifice things no matter what we do, we sacrifice our time doing either school or work in order to get money to put food on the table. We sacrifice relationships that drag us behind in order to further ourselves in life, we sacrifice one thing for another.

What value does something have to have in order for it to be worth the sacrifice of something else? Today's society lives in the now, and people today hate sacrificing the time of now for the time of the future. A lot of people I see nowadays, especially in my school, just say "Eh, screw these courses, I don't need them I'll just go to college." then when I speak to people who have went to college they regret taking the easy way out and not trying for higher. They said that if they went to university they would have opened more doors. What I believe sacrifice to be is the surrendering of something in order to gain something else of more value to the person.

What I ask of you is, what do you think of sacrifice and what have you sacrificed recently that has really impacted your life?

 

[tr1age]

College is nothing more than a thing on a resume that lets the guy ont eh other end of the desk go, oh good he went through the SAME SHIT that I did. Moving on to real life skills.

 

[Ultra CHEZ]

In regards to the specific sacrifices regarding college that you brought up, I know them all too well. I am pretty close to the opposite of the people you describe. I feel the need to take the most difficult courses and challenge myself as much as possible. I'm in my senior year in high school, and I''m taking 5 AP courses (would've taken 6 if AP Government had more students sign up), I hold an officer postion in two of the most prestigious (and thus time consuming) clubs at my school, and I still have to find time to actually apply to college, do my homework, and complete my chores. Everyone said I was crazy for taking on this work load and I think they were somewhat right. While I know I can excel in any of these classes, the problem is that by taking on so much I have to sacrifice in many other areas of my life. My parents don't see me at all some weekends because I'm going from one club function to another in such rapid succession. I sometimes have so much that I literally forget about homework assignments. And forget about gaming. You guys know, I'm not on nearly as much as a lot of other people in the guild. When I do play, it's usually because I'm sacrificing time that should be spent working on some project, paper, or other responsibility. This sucks, because I love gaming. It's my passion, and the true reason I push myself so hard (I want to work in the industry some day). Oh god, and don't even get me started on sleep...

I suppose the point I'm trying to make here is that sacrifices require a balanced approach. It's my belief that sacrificing from any one area is never a good idea. Take tough classes, yes, but don't drive yourself into the ground because of them. Unless you're a genius, or have the will of a grizzled monk, your grades will suffer, your social life will suffer, and you'll look back and wonder if you couldn't have done things differently. I don't know, maybe that's just me...

 

[Lokapala]

I think that the word "sacrifice" doesn't mean what you think it means

From the context it seems like you use it as a sort of objective descriptor of an exchange of one valuable (?) resource for another, both of which exist in a relatively unlimited supply (yes, your lifetime is limited; but you have no factual knowledge of it's length, only some questionably applicable probabilities).
But that's not what a sacrifice is. A sacrifice originally is a devotional act of depriving oneself (or even your whole community) of a valuable significantly limited resource (foodstuffs or rare goods, usually) in exchange for a potential intangible and uncomparable gain. When you burn a fucking herd of cows to get your troops blessed for the coming war, your definitely deprive yourself of valuable food and bet on having a morale increase or luck turning your way - you exchange a resource for a psychological effect. When you meditate in a cold cave for days you deprive yourself of lots of resources necessary for continued survival in hopes of achieving lasting changes in your psyche.

So, sacrifice: significant loss for an incomparable gain.

When you move that word from it's original context it turns from an objective descriptor into an emotional and subjective one:

It implies that the loss you incur is significantly affecting your survival and prosperity and the gain is incomparable and/or unattainable otherwise. These implications when talking about everyday modern life (at least in the first world) turn from factual significance to emotional significance - you're not losing something of great value and limited supply, you just feel like you do.

So to your questions I would say this:
If I feel like I'm making a sacrifice when choosing between two pasttimes, I ask myself why am I so emotionally invested in one of them? Does this investment reflect the actual value of said pasttime to me, or is it merely a shadow play of assumptions, hopes and expectations in my mind? And if it is so valuable to me, why the fuck am I "sacrificing" it in the first place?
Thus when it comes to my actual choices and actions, I never feel like I'm sacrificing anything. Outside of devotional practice, for the obvious reason that said feeling is the point in that context

 

[Keleynal]

The idea of sacrifice is huge to me. I believe that God became man and sacrificed himself for me and the rest of mankind. Because of that, I believe I have a responsibility to offer myself as a living sacrifice- to spend each day looking for ways I can further God's kingdom, regardless of the cost to me.

Great example happened just yesterday. I was riding home on the bus and I saw a couple sitting across from me that I had never seen before. They had a couple shopping bags with them filled to the brim with clothes and random household items. The woman was sitting with her head in her hands and looked about to cry. The man was more controlled, but looked like he had just been through hell.

I don't normally talk to people on the bus, I prefer to sleep; but as I looked at those two people I felt a strong need to ask if they were OK and to pray with them. This isn't normal for me either. I have gotten feelings like this maybe once or twice before. It's tough to explain, but what it boils down to is that God was giving me instruction as clearly as if He was physically next to me.

I tried to shrug it off, but the feeling did not go away, and I knew that if I was not obedient I would regret it later. So I summoned the courage and prayed with them. There was no choir of angels in attendance and there was no huge moment where they opened up to me and poured out their hearts, but the woman did lift her head, smile, and whisper "Things are going to be alright" to he man beside her. After I had prayed, I asked and searched silently inside myself if there was anything else I could possibly do. I had no money on me, nor anything else tangible that could be of any help to them. I did feel a peace come over me, though, and I knew I had done the right thing.

So what did I sacrifice there? Admittedly, not much. I risked looking like a fool. I gave up time that I usually used to nap. I allowed my will to be overruled by what I believed to be a directive from God.

But you know what? Most of the time, that's all it takes. Reaching across the aisle to some one that's hurting with a kind word or gesture can mean more than slaughtering an entire herd of cattle (it's less messy too). What makes it a sacrifice is you making an offering with no expectation of outcome or return. Find ways to sacrifice daily, I believe your life will be enriched.