In my last post, Young Adults Needed (https://peacewithinreach.com/young-adults-needed-1-of-2/), I meant it, for every young adult. The world needs your skills, your time, your resources, ultimately, your sacrifice.
I realize that word has spiritual connotations. While my last post lacked a spiritual focus, would you please bare with me a few moments as I highlight examples of sacrifice which are more spiritual, but which are vital to being a difference-maker?
I admitted that as I near 50 years, I can feel irrelevant to younger generations. Here’s a story from a much older guy, but due to his name—Billy Graham, is still accepted as relevant by many. Billy Graham once preached this story: “Ernest Shackelton was going to Antarctica so he placed an ad in the New York Times because he couldn’t get any volunteers. He wrote, “The pay is going to be low, and it’s going to be tough, and it’s going to be rough, and you may get killed.” Interestingly, they had the largest response to that ad of any ad ever carried in that paper, many of them young people. Young people often want a challenge. They want something rough and tough and that’s what Jesus offers to his disciples. He doesn’t offer a good time. Jesus offers suffering. He offers a Cross. He offers death, but the rewards are fantastic—eternal life, peace, and joy here. A supernatural power to love your friends and your neighbors. A new power to help the world in which we live by changing it for the better” (Sermon title: “Let’s be Radical; sermons from Madison Square Garden, June 19, 1969).
Jesus, who is the most well-known sacrificer, said of himself, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
Sacrifice, the giving away and loss of things for the sake of others, is what one does to make the biggest impact. As I wrote about last time, Mariam, Alan, and Ernest, all whom are former refugees, sacrifice much, especially in helping people in their former home countries, and they all would say it is worth it; it’s what makes life meaningful.
That’s what I hope Bobby, an acquaintance of mine who is presently in jail, will also catch onto. His life, now about 54 years, and his family members’ lives have been much about choices that have caused incarcerations and hurt. Bobby and I are having dialogue about Jesus, His sacrifice for us, and that Bobby’s life going forward can be powerful, as a difference-maker. It’s not 100% necessary to receive Jesus personally in order to be impactful, but it will likely help seven-fold. Isn’t that cool—it’s never too late, even for 50-somethings like Bobby and me!
Interested in knowing more about that? Click this link—https://peacewithinreach.com/searching-consider-this/.
(If you made it through this post to this point, thank-you! In thanks, for the next few days, my book, Peace Within Reach, is $.99 as an e-book on Amazon, free as a hard-copy if you are local (Sioux Falls), free if you send me some postage $ so I can send you free copies (just communicate that with me), or it’s discounted to $3.99 as a hard-copy from Amazon (https://peacewithinreach.com/my-books/). (There’s an on-going similar deal for my other book, A Search for Common Ground: Let’s Talk, if you read my last post—https://peacewithinreach.com/young-adults-needed-1-of-2/.)
Questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact me (https://peacewithinreach.com/contact/) so we can dialogue.