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What is the Real Meaning of Sacrifice?
Although in truth the term sacrifice is altogether meaningless, it does have meaning in the world. Like all lessons, it is an illusion, for in reality there is nothing to learn. The first illusion is that it is a sacrifice to give up the things of this world. What could this be but an illusion, since this world itself is nothing more than that?
It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? By seeking after such things, the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what it really is.
Once this confusion has occurred, it becomes impossible for the mind to understand that all the “pleasures” of the world are nothing. How has the mind condemned itself to seek without finding; to be forever dissatisfied and discontented; to know not what it really wants to find. Self-condemnation is a decision about identity, and no one doubts what he believes he is. He can doubt all things, but never this.
Is it a sacrifice to give up pain? Does an adult resent the giving up of children’s toys? Does one whose vision has already glimpsed the face of Christ look back with longing on a slaughter house? No one who has escaped the world and all its ills looks back on it with condemnation. Yet he must rejoice that he is free of all the sacrifice its values would demand of him. Who in his sane mind chooses nothing as a substitute for everything?
What is the real meaning of sacrifice? It is the cost of believing in illusions. It is the idea of sacrifice that makes us blind. We do not see what we are asking for, and so we seek it in a thousand ways and in a thousand places, each time believing it is there, and each time being disappointed in the end. “Seek but do not find” remains this world’s stern decree. No one who pursues the world’s goals can do otherwise.
What is it that you want?
Do not forget that sacrifice is total. There are no half sacrifices. You cannot give up Heaven partially and you cannot be a little bit in hell. The Word of God has no exceptions. It is this that makes it holy and beyond the world. It is its holiness that points to God. Its holiness makes you safe. It is denied if you attack any brother for anything. For it is here the split with God occurs. But that split is impossible and cannot happen. Yet it is a split in which you surely will believe, because of the way you have set up the situation in your mind in which the impossible can seem to happen.
Do not forget the meaning of sacrifice, and remember what each decision you make must mean in terms of cost. Decide for God, and everything is given you at no cost at all.
What would you teach? Remember only what you would learn, for it is here that your concern should be. Atonement is for you. Your leaning claims it and your learning gives it. The world does not contain it. God holds out His Word to you, for He has need of teachers. What other way is there to save His Son?
