Sacrificial service

At thanksgiving do we thank god only for his bounty, or do we also thank him for the opportunity to serve, perhaps sacrificially?

My wife and I asked that question after paying more than $70,000 in mortgage payments for a townhouse in northern Virginia that is worth considerably less than when we bought it six years ago.

At first, we simply didn't understand it. My wife and I had prayed extensively about buying this house and we gave God numerous opportunities to close the door. Yet in every way, God appeared to bless the move. But then the housing market crashed--and it looks like it might take 5 or 6 years for it to recover.

"Why didn't God stop us?" my wife and I kept wondering. After all, we had given God plenty of opportunities to do so. But one day my wife was praying and sensed God asking her, "Have you ever considered the possibility that I wanted you in that neighborhood to reach other people rather than to bolster your financial equity?"

We thought of the people that we have been able to reach, and then we asked ourselves, does our theology leave room for serving a God who would lead us to make what turned out to be a poor financial decision but what also turned out to be a profitable spiritual one? In other words, does obedience obligate God to bless us, or can obedience call us to sacrifice?

Think about the cross before you answer that one.

as our society faces the next millennium, it's more important than ever that we trash our "primitive" Christianity in which one sin = one whack, and one act of obedience = one blessing. The Christian life doesn't work that way. We think obedience should lead to blessing after blessing until ultimately we become healthy, wealthy, and wise.

But it's not that simple. Though Jesus promised many blessings, he also promised there would be moments of sacrifice: "For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt" (Mark 9:49 NKJV). When Jesus says everyone will be seasoned with fire, he's excluding any exceptions with a startling finality.

It's possible that a Christian candidate might do everything right--maybe her life is a sterling example of tenacity, perseverance, and godliness--but still lose an election by an embarrassing margin. A Christian businessman might operate his business on the principles of honesty and integrity and still watch bankruptcy enfold him. A Christian teacher might make a courageous stand for the faith and still end up getting fired.

While blessings are frequently promised in Scripture, we have to remember that our faith is based on the notion of sacrifice--beginning with Jesus. No one ever lived a more obedient life than Jesus, yet few have ever died such an inhumane death.

To be honest with you, of those that I perceive to have an inordinately strong faith. I almost always notice that they also have some inordinately difficult trials to overcome. Teresa of Avila, a 16th-century nun who wrote brilliantly about prayer but who also faced some major setbacks in her life, once remarked to God that "if this is how you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so many enemies."

god has given our nation and church not just decades but centuries of blessing. If at any time in the future we find ourselves (individually or collectively) entering an era of sacrifice, we mustn't be caught by surprise. Israel was enslaved for 400 years--but never forsaken. The early Christian church was hunted, persecuted, and beaten brutally at various moments in its first century--but always held with great affection by her God.

I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that if we don't recover a theology of sacrificial obedience, we'll be ill-prepared to face the next century's challenges. Obedience doesn't necessarily lead to immediate blessing. Failure or adversity doesn't mean we "missed" God's leading. It may just mean that God is exercising his option to call us his servants and allowing us to experience the phenomena of sacrifice upon which faith in him is based.

"You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).