recovering a sacrifice

 We hear a lot about sacrifice these days. An awful lot about sacrifice in fact. Well I just have to point out one thing, a sacrifice is something given voluntarily in exchange for the hope of something else. Sacrifice can be nothing more than a selfish desire on your part. Oh but no one talks about that do they? No, a sacrifice is a noble act these days, just as it was when we were sacrificing virgins to the Gods. Modern man has a flair for the dramatic as well, just not the willingness to actually sacrifice anyone. I'd say that was a good thing and only mention it for clarity. A sacrifice is not an exchange. It's not this for that. Sacrifice is without compromise. And therein lies a distinction. Far more results can be obtained through compromise than through sacrifice. Remember: the sacrificial lamb dies! Did that death actually accomplish anything? That's one I'll leave to the philosophers to answer. The real question to me is, should we feel compassion for the lamb? If so, then why sacrifice the lamb in the first place? 

 Before we start talking about how much we sacrifice we should consider all of that. If we sacrifice our value, in the hope of obtaining a lesser value, that does make sense? Of course it doesn't and everyone would agree. But now we have decided that any exchange is a sacrifice. We should get whatever we want for nothing. Isn't that becoming the mindset? To get the things I want I have to make a sacrifice. Was a day we called that working for it. The only sacrifice being made was to ourselves. We denied our own impulses to the benefit of our self or others. The sacrifice? Not just doing whatever we feel like doing and labeling it as a right. Compromises were made and progress along with them. War is the result of a failure to compromise. That's when we start talking about men sacrificing their lives for a cause. The truth is the sacrifice being made is to themselves, their willingness to die should that become a reality. It's never a necessity to die. It may become a choice. But then we have hotlines to convince people to not make that choice! That choice is not a sacrifice is it? No, because there is no hope of gain in return. That is the reason most major religions in the world condemn that act. The position being your life belongs to God, and therefore you have no right to end it. If I could gain entry into heaven simply by the act of suicide, why wouldn't I? If I truly believe it would seem a viable option, a sensible choice whenever life become too difficult. I mean why stay here and suffer when I could just go to heaven? 

 The thing with sacrifice is you must be willing to " give all."  Compromise has no such requirement. By compromising you get to keep a little anyway. If you are going to complain about whatever it is you sacrificed, it wasn't a sacrifice at all. Sacrifice is given without complaint! It makes no difference if anyone knows about that sacrifice. But man has an inherent desire to show others his sacrifices, his good deeds. We don't like to admit it, but we all enjoy being recognized. Aristotle said, " Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. " In other words, no one else needs to know. Do not sacrifice your character for a temporary gain. Thomas Paine pointed out, " Character is much easier kept, than recovered. " 

 What I'm trying to say here is, sacrifice shouldn't be a spectacle, a show for the masses. That's not sacrifice, that's theater. Demanding a return for a sacrifice is the most presumptuous act of man. And now, now we are filing a lawsuit to regain what was offered in our sacrifice? What does that say about character?