Sacrifice

There are things in the world that are more important than me. There are things more important than you.

Get this.

Get this into your head.

Without this one, the rest of this crap won't make any sense. Your thoughts, while cute and perhaps profound, are whips in the face of the suffering of the starving. Your amusement, while charming and at times worthy, is a shallow pursuit when compared to your sacred birthrights. Your comfort, while warm and ultimately beautiful, pales when compared to the good that you are capable of unleashing in the world.

It all boils down to sacrifice. The world is not perfect yet. Perfectly journeying toward perfection, maybe, but not yet. When all is set right, all goods will be in perfect alignment, and the attainment of all will be but one step away. But not yet.

Face it. You are not the most important thing in world, you aren't even the most important thing in your life. Look around. Your friends, family, children, the children of others... We can amplify voices long unheard, fight for rights long unhad, build things of lasting truth and beauty.

Fuck, lets not sugar coat it with poetry either. There are things worth dying for... causes that will ask from you the ultimate price. Will you pretend you are the centerpiece of your life, and hesitate to lay yourself down for a friend? Will your lover and children go unprotected from the slings of the world?

Diminish. Don't think less of yourself. Think more of that which surrounds you. You don't need to hate yourself to serve. Don't give yourself heaps of gold stars, either, but don't waste your breath with self pity. Rather, fill your lungs with songs of the beauty of the people and moments that make your life worth living. You are a tiny moment in time. That only makes you insignificant if you cling to yourself. A speck of matter and movement, trying to hand itself satisfaction, pathetically struggling for the prestige of not being tossed about by the mighty torrent of all creation.

Give it up. Give up your quest to making yourself worthy. Cling instead to the things of worth around you. Hand them satisfaction. Struggle to keep their wellbeing afloat that endless flood.

May the blood in my veins water your fields and my tears season your food. And when my body has failed, till it into the soil so life may spring from me in the end.

Serve, even unto your death. It's not something we talk about much these days. Sacrifice, it seems, is a fruit just a bit too bitter. Be reminded. It is a fruit. There are beautiful glories in moments of brokenness. The realization that your works have contributed for the good. The peace of knowing that nothing else could have been done.

But best of all... best of all has got to be the love. I've never felt more love than in those moments of sacrifice. You see in perfect clarity the beauty of the thing you exalted with your service, and an unbreakable spiritual bond wells up between you. Sure it takes compassion and love to give, but it is only in giving that our eyes see mercifully by the light of love.

What now? Start looking for the world about you that dwarfs your significance, and start identifying in yourself the inseparable and necessary tools hidden within you by a brilliant creator. Let them out! Foster your spirit and give. Live out the sweaty, teary, and bloody life that lies ahead of those who sacrifice and serve.

It will be hardest thing you ever do. And yet, once you get started, you might just find that seeking your easy life while pretending of your great importance was much more taxing by far.