Sunday, March 08, 2009

What are you willing to give up to have something else? We all know the phrase, “You can’t have it all.” And we all know how very true that is. But in most cases we can have what we desire, provided we give something up that we already have. Are you willing to give up smoking to live a healthier lifestyle? Are you willing to give up playing sports because your body just can’t take it anymore? These are just trivial things pertaining to ourselves and for most people the answers to these questions are, “No.” Now, are you willing to give up your free or personal time to spend time somewhere else? Probably not if it’s something you don’t want to do. But what if it is doing something that is "for the greater good?" Would you give up your time to be with someone who is dying, or with an organization reaching out to better your community? Would you give up the personal things you absolutely enjoy to be with the person you love? Would you give up your life to save another?

Sacrifice can be an extremely difficult thing to do especially when it comes to the things that we think makes us who we are. Fortunately it’s not what we give up that makes us who we are, but the fact that we do give up that makes us stand out as great individuals. Sacrifice is typically not a mandatory thing. It’s something we do because we want to be better people. Better to ourselves and better to others. Think of the great sacrifices in history that have brought us to the present we live in today. What would this world be without those sacrifices? What would the world be like tomorrow if we stopped living for others and only lived for ourselves? What would there be left to live for?