In 2013, I got to walk across Arlington Cemetery and noted the many soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom in this country. I realize that they represent only a fraction of those who sacrificed their lives for others. As a Christian, I have the understanding that Jesus sacrificed his life for my sins. I understand that I don’t always show gratitude for that sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed everything. We struggle to sacrifice a little bit of our time to serve others.
Jesus
said, “No greater love has this that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13. I see similarities between Christians and Americans who focus their
energy on politics. Both do not understand true sacrifice, gratitude, or how to
truly love their neighbor. Jesus loves everyone, including those who don’t believe
or follow Him. He desires for all to come to Him and enjoy His salvation. Social
media has revealed that many people do not understand how to love because they
refuse to love difficult people in their lives, or people who refuse to do what
they demand.
Love requires
sacrifice. Sacrifice comes from a pure heart. This last week some old adults
tried to get young people to sacrifice their dreams and education for politics.
They want others to sacrifice. That’s not sacrifice. That’s gaslighting and
guilt-shaming at its finest. You sacrifice when you give from your heart even
when you know you just gave everything. You do it with a heart of joy knowing
that someone will be blessed for it, yet you do not expect or demand a note of
gratitude. Love does not tell others to sacrifice. You just sacrifice expecting
nothing in return.
Sacrifice comes
when it hurts. Sacrifice comes when we do it with love and selflessness. It never
comes from pride or self-serving. It comes when we take the time to pray for
what we can do without a thought of what others may do.
Both Christians
and Americans must become more grateful. Social media becomes louder when
people have extra time during holidays. Instead of being grateful, people
insult and judge others. Gratitude starts with focusing on what you have and not
on what others have. Envy can be a root sin that becomes difficult to repair. We
want what we see others have because we think that they have a perfect life.
Social
media has made jealousy a top issue with our current society. We think people
get to live each day as how they post. Most of us only share the good things in
our lives. We want to be positive for others, or we want to inspire others. Envy
kills all of it.
In the church,
envy can be in the form of gossip for our leaders. We find flaws with others because
we only see that life has given us misery. When we don’t look at the good
things in our lives, we become ungrateful and judgmental. A grateful person
sees the good in what others do.
Life does
not turn out the way anyone expects. For most of us we struggle to get to the
point where we are in life now. Some people achieve greatness because of many
factors. The Bible states that we must rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn
with those who mourn. Christians do a great job mourning with those who mourn. My
Twitter feed had all the words of comfort for the family of race car driver
Kyle Busch. Even the Mars company had his sponsored M & M’s
crying. Christians love on those who hurt, but scowl at those who succeed and
wonder what sin they committed for them to get to that success.
Look around
at your life. What do you have that you can be grateful for? Write down one
thing every day that you can be grateful for. It has to be a different thing
every day. Soon, you will start to see the good things you have in your life. You
will stop judging others because you will start to see the good in them instead
of their flaws.
Once we
understand sacrifice and gratitude, we can then begin to love others as Jesus
loves. Love does not mean we have to agree with you on everything or accept everything
you do. I have friends who have murdered, stolen, and had addictions to drugs
and alcohol. I don’t agree with their actions, but I love them for how I see
Jesus working in their lives.
Love means
we give grace to those who believe and think differently. Love in action
requires us to listen to the entire story of those in our lives. Love means we
think before we speak, and many times we make the choice to not speak. Love means
we pray for our enemies. We do good things for them rather than insult them. The
Bible says that God will take revenge, and if we do good to our enemies, we
heap burning coals on their head.
This Memorial
Day, take the time to reflect on your life. Scroll through your social media
posts and see them as Jesus would read them. Would he see you as a loving,
grateful and sacrificial person, or someone who must tell others how horrible
they live their lives? How would other people see your social media posts? Do
they see them as encouraging or judgmental?
On this
holiday, reflect on how you have lived. Then, since you still live, take the
time to make the changes to sacrifice, love, and be grateful. It doesn’t take
much. It just takes looking outside of life on social media and see the people
that God created in His own image.
