What Would You Give Up?
Read Philippians 2:1-11.
What would you give up for the sake of someone else? In general, we're not very good at giving things up. We've earned what we have, we're told. Hang onto it. Protect it. Don't give anything up. And so we marvel at the one who gives up comfort and ease to go work in an underprivileged country or even a poverty-wracked neighborhood. They're heroes, we say. They're dedicated. Or we marvel at the one who makes a sacrifice during Lent, giving up something for forty whole days! We marvel because we know how hard it is to give something up—especially when that something is chocolate!
I knew a man whose wife was routinely upset with him because he, so many evenings, would come home without his coat. If he met someone during the day who didn't have a coat or who was cold, it was nothing to him to take his own coat off and give it away. His wife was often seen shopping for a new coat for him because it was just a part of his life to give up his coat for the sake of someone else.
Tony Campolo tells the story of meeting a bum on the streets of Philadelphia. The man had a cup of hot coffee, and when he saw Tony, a well-dressed professor, walking along the street, the man with the coffee called out to him. "Hey, mister," he said, "would you like a drink of my coffee?" Tony couldn't think of anything he would want to do less than drink this man's coffee, but he accepted the gift anyway. After taking a sip, he asked, "Why are you sharing your coffee?" It was obvious this man didn't have much and had probably slept on the street the night before. The man smiled through his beard and said, "I just figure when the coffee is this good, you've got to share it with someone." A man with nothing, willing to give of what little he had...just because the coffee was especially good that morning.
What would you give up for the sake of the other?
Paul says we are to be like Jesus (he's not the only one who says that, by the way), and to be like Jesus is to be one who gives up what we have for the sake of the other. In humility, we surrender rank, privilege and status to reach others. We are "too good" for no one. After all, Paul says (quoting an early Christian hymn), Jesus gave up everything he had in heaven, one with the Father, and came to live and die on Earth. He gave up the glory of eternity so that two pieces of wood would come to have glory—the glory of heaven given to transform the shame of the cross. Jesus gave up everything to reach us.
So...what would you give up for the sake of the other?
What would you give up for the sake of someone else? In general, we're not very good at giving things up. We've earned what we have, we're told. Hang onto it. Protect it. Don't give anything up. And so we marvel at the one who gives up comfort and ease to go work in an underprivileged country or even a poverty-wracked neighborhood. They're heroes, we say. They're dedicated. Or we marvel at the one who makes a sacrifice during Lent, giving up something for forty whole days! We marvel because we know how hard it is to give something up—especially when that something is chocolate!
I knew a man whose wife was routinely upset with him because he, so many evenings, would come home without his coat. If he met someone during the day who didn't have a coat or who was cold, it was nothing to him to take his own coat off and give it away. His wife was often seen shopping for a new coat for him because it was just a part of his life to give up his coat for the sake of someone else.
Tony Campolo tells the story of meeting a bum on the streets of Philadelphia. The man had a cup of hot coffee, and when he saw Tony, a well-dressed professor, walking along the street, the man with the coffee called out to him. "Hey, mister," he said, "would you like a drink of my coffee?" Tony couldn't think of anything he would want to do less than drink this man's coffee, but he accepted the gift anyway. After taking a sip, he asked, "Why are you sharing your coffee?" It was obvious this man didn't have much and had probably slept on the street the night before. The man smiled through his beard and said, "I just figure when the coffee is this good, you've got to share it with someone." A man with nothing, willing to give of what little he had...just because the coffee was especially good that morning.
What would you give up for the sake of the other?
Paul says we are to be like Jesus (he's not the only one who says that, by the way), and to be like Jesus is to be one who gives up what we have for the sake of the other. In humility, we surrender rank, privilege and status to reach others. We are "too good" for no one. After all, Paul says (quoting an early Christian hymn), Jesus gave up everything he had in heaven, one with the Father, and came to live and die on Earth. He gave up the glory of eternity so that two pieces of wood would come to have glory—the glory of heaven given to transform the shame of the cross. Jesus gave up everything to reach us.
So...what would you give up for the sake of the other?
Great post! There are less and less people who are even willing to give something as simple as a smile, let alone something sacrificial.
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