Try It! You'll Like It!

It is only a few weeks before I find myself winging my way to the Balkans.  PowerPoints and lessons finished, are now being translated. Schedules and meetings being finalized.  Materials ($570 worth) to take and leave with teachers there purchased and laying on the guest bed in guest bedroom ready to pack.  The only remaining items to purchase?  Some coffee from here, and a few packages of pepperoni for the guy whose extra room in which I will sleep.

When people from here invest in the lives of those living in another culture, because they are called to love them, they sacrifice much.  Even the simple things, like American roasted coffee, and pepperoni can bring 'comfort' to them while they sacrifice...and, I am the one privileged to carry that cargo of comfort to them as I go.  While many here may see my sacrifice as a grand and generous gesture, and, while it is, my sacrifice significantly pales to those whom I join.  Understand, I am not saying this to elevate them or any of 'us' who may choose to go, but rather to state facts about sacrifice, giving and love.

We 'need' experiences like these to ground our expectations and grow our appreciation. I fully desire to understand where I fit in the world's economy of love, in my local economy of love, and my personal economy of love so that I have a reference point for life and living.  They, by giving up the privileges of living in the land they were born, believe they fit, for now, investing in those in a foreign culture. 

We each are called to sacrifice and give and I am thankful for each who has done, according to their call, to participate with me.  You participate as you read, and, for those who join by praying for me, sacrifice your time before our Lord, entreat His protection, blessing and empowering of my time there.  Others have so generously given that I will not spend a single of my dollars to go, share, and love those in Croatia and Bosnia.  My wife will sacrifice my presence here for ten days, and I will sacrifice ten days of pay.  But those there?  They have sacrificed most things American.  Yes many are the things we hold to with fain appreciation because they are part of our everyday blessings of living here, in America.

While I plan on taking much with me, I also plan on bringing back 'stuff' from Bosnia and Croatia.  While my friend Josh in Bosnia desires coffee from 'home', I will bring home coffee from there, and, as I sip each sip upon my return, reminisce of my time there, praying for those who sacrifice much to love those people.  While Josh is now also dreaming of the pepperoni I will bring (and plenty I will bring) I find myself dreaming of the prosciutto and Livno cheese I will consume.  For another, wonderful couple in Croatia, I will be bringing a suitcase that they had to leave behind because they had too much 'stuff' to take back.  And, while I will replace it with Croatian olive oil, I will take them stuff that is much cheaper to buy here.  These simple things I take will bring great comfort to them there.  It is all a different perspective forged by sacrifice, theirs, yours and mine.

Yours you ask?  Indeed.  Possibly because I have loved you, you find yourself reading this of the millions of blogs.  Most of you are reading this because you love me, and by loving me have a growing love for those I go to serve and love in the Balkans.  Maybe a few of you are those who have contributed to my trip there.  And mostly, I hope that you, my readers will sacrifice a little bit of your time to pray to the Lord asking for His help, power, eyes to see and heart to respond generously with His love and wisdom into their hearts.

If there is any single thing I have discovered that people everywhere 'need', it is love.  Not romantic, not deeply intimate, but rather deeply rooted in sincerity and care.  We all require and are looking for those who will come alongside us in the joys, deep tragedies and the everything in betweens of life and living, and for many of us, the number of these truly selfless friends are either non-existent or scant.  However, for me, there are many with you being one, especially because you are reading this.  You may be one who will join me on this trip because we have walked together deeply rooted in sincerity and care.  And because we walked together, you continue walking with me as I share my heart.

The longer I live, the more I see personal sacrifice and caring for others as my means to joy.  If we would all start doing the small acts of care, our world would dramatically change.  If I can make someone's life richer because I do something they may not even see, like returning some carts either to the stall or store, or even just putting my cart into the stall, I find that a way to love another.  I did that before I worked in retail, and now that I do, appreciate it even more.  If we would care enough to pick up a strewn article of clothing in the aisles even though we didn't knock it off the hanger, or straighten a pile of pants because others ripped their size out disheveling the stack and left it that way, it would make a difference.  Even simpler, if we all would just put things back exactly like we found them (how hard is that?), it would make so many other's lives, much easier.  Jesus said,

'Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for a friend'.

Everyone reads that as, to die for a friend is the greatest sacrifice.  But that is the extreme.  I believe what he was saying is,

Greater love has no man than he put aside his preference, laziness, and selfishness to care enough to do something beneficial or sacrificial for a friend...known or unknown!

It is that simple.  That is laying down my life for a friend. Don't believe me?  Watch your marriage turn around when you, gentlemen start taking out the trash BEFORE your wife asks, or do the dishes or even learn how to do the laundry.  That is where I started a few years ago (yes, it took me nearly 30 years to understand the secret of bringing greater joy to my marriage).  Another thing to to do?  Speak encouragement or care into a cashier's life (as you check out) when he/she tells you (because you ask regularly) that today or the past week has been a struggle.   Start the simple sacrifice and it will grow into the major ones.  Why?  Because you become energized by sharing genuine love.

The thing, the only major thing I desire to be said of me upon my exit from this planet is that people liked to be around me because of my genuine love for them, and, that my genuine love for them rose out of my deeply rooted love for my Lord, Jesus.  For if I do any great thing, it isn't because I just 'have' a good heart, it is because Jesus has led me to have a good heart.  Why?  Because I know that I would not be who I am today without His leading, without His sacrifice, without Him calling me to do just as he, genuinely loving those He encountered.  And, because I desire to be a real and honest reflection of my leader, with His help, I will get there.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Now, go ahead and make other's day beautiful through sacrifice.  Try it!  You'll like it!