Sacrifice

While at work the other day, a lady I work with was talking (if people think I can talk, she has me beat). I know that is no headline, but while she was filling the cracks of silence with her words I had to pause and think about what she was actually saying. I don’t believe people do that enough, think about what they are saying and what their words mean. See, this lady was talking about how Burger King only offers promotions for their Whoppers and not their Double Whoppers, and “regular Whoppers just don’t fill me up, they aren’t enough, ya know?” to which I responded with a nod. But then I thought about it and I realized how privileged it is to say such a thing.

There are people around the world who are starving as we speak, as you read this now, and we think we need Double Whoppers! That is 900 calories! That is half a pound of meat! The American perspective of what we need is so skewed it is disturbing. There are many people who are aware of how consumer obsessed our culture is, but most do not have the proper lens to see how to change that in the day to day grind.

See, I think about how a Double Whopper is really not what I need, nor is it what most Americans need. I think about how there are children all over the world (and some right in your community) who are hungry. Who really need food to survive. Sure, I could spout some statistics from the World Food Programme website…

Asia and the Pacific is home to 578 million of the world’s hungry, compared to 239 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean

Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year

Sure, these are startling and wretched, but are they in your head when you become an over consumer? Do they change your habits? They don’t. They should. Do you really need that Double Whopper, or the smart phone, or the manicure? Are they necessary for your survival? It is okay to treat yourself occasionally, but it is important to remember how privileged we really are.

This is the time of year when many go without something, when people make a sacrifice. It becomes a topic of conversation, a comparing of what each person is sacrificing and why. It is good to give something up, to make that sacrifice, but it almost is too easy when there are so many other things that can easily fill the cracks. Those who give up caffeine or social media will replace it with some other indulgence. It is inevitable, we need to distract ourselves, to fill the void where that habit or pastime resided in our lives. When I gave up red meat I’m pretty sure the amount of chocolate I ate increased as a result.

What if, instead of simply giving something up, you gave as well? What if you really made a sacrifice. What if, say, you sponsored a child? Or helped give a community clean water? Those are things people really need to survive. Lent is about sacrificing something because Christ sacrificed himself for us, but Christ also gave us something. He gave us life. What if we choose to give life to someone as well?

 

Photo credit: J.M. Photography