What Would You Give Up?
When all you want is all you can’t have, what would you give up? I was thinking of a song not to long ago by Tim McGraw : Don’t Take The Girl. When we live our lives we often feel like if we could just have one thing, just that one special thing it would change our life forever, and we’d never ask for anything big again? During the boy’s life in the song it starts off with a girl going fishing, and in his youth he doesn’t want the girl to tag along. He’s older and asks the girl to marry him and they get mugged. He begs the man not to take the girl. He offers his possessions in the hopes he can keep her from harm. Later she’s giving birth and complications arise and he begs God not to take the girl, he pleads with God to take him instead. Have you ever been in a place like that? Have you ever pleaded for something so strongly you’d be willing to trade places to protect someone from harm?
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Have you ever loved someone so much you were willing to give your all for them, to protect them? Think about what it means to give up everything for someone. Think of what it means to make the ultimate sacrifice? Jesus Christ did that for us. He gave up his life to save ours. He suffered at the hands of the wicked, and his innocent bloodshed paved the way for our eternal salvation.
A love that would last a lifetime is a rare thing. A love that would wade through the mud and the muck, that would suffer long, and be patient and wait through the craziness of this world. Loving someone isn’t easy and sometimes that love in itself can cause pain, but through the pain can be something wonderful, something hopeful. Having the patience and the security to manage isn’t always an easy thing to do. Sometimes we must take a leap of faith in order to see what the world may offer. Sometimes for the one chance at the spark of love we must give up ourselves in order strike the match. It all boils down to faith. Do you have it, or do you need it? Either way in anything we encounter in our lives we must have faith to see the path through the darkness, and only in that faith can we finally, and fully see the light of true hope.