Sacrifice—it’s a word that you don’t hear used much these days. Growing up as a boy, I heard it used frequently as a part of daily living. Things like, “Sacrifice to save money” or “Sacrifice something so that we can have something we desire more” (like a vacation). Of course, living in a military family, I heard it used in the manner of those men and women “sacrificing to serve their country.”
I only mention this because I was struck by the news report of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, referring to her trip to Copenhagen to try and convince members of the IOC to choose Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics.
As reported by the Washington Examiner, “In her speech in Copenhagen today, First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her ‘dear friend” and “chit-chat buddy’ Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow’s visit by President Obama, is a ‘sacrifice’ on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States.”
Now, there will be those that will immediately rebuke me saying that I’m only writing this to attack the First Family. To which I would reply, “You don’t have a clue” and I’ll gladly explain my point.
I was always taught that “making sacrifices” meant there was a cost assigned to it. To refer to being flown to Europe, at taxpayer expense (I guess there is a cost but it’s usually by the one ‘doing’ the sacrifice), and to be treated like Royalty upon arriving in Denmark demeans the whole idea of “sacrifice” and those that know what it truly means firsthand.
All across this nation, there are stories of people making “sacrifices” –family, friends and neighbors reaching out to those that have lost their job or battling a sickness.
Sacrifice? You want to talk about sacrifice?
- How about the people that are working two or more jobs just trying to provide food and the basic necessities of life for their families?
- How about the people that recently lost their homes to wildfires in the West or floods in the Southeast?
- How about the father and son from northwest Indiana who died trying to rescue a 10-year-old neighbor who'd fallen in to a rain-swollen drainage ditch? The boy survived but they received the Carnegie Medal for heroism posthumously this week.
- How about our military men and women serving around the world; many of them living in tents or make-shift housing, greatly missing their families, and are daily targets for terrorist who live to kill?
- How about the thousands that died this past week when whole villages in Samoa and Indonesia were wiped out from earthquakes and tsunamis? Or the tens of thousands that lost their lives from the storms in the Philippines?
I’m sorry—but for the First Lady (or anyone) to say that an all-expense paid trip on a luxury 757 aircraft is a sacrifice—is simply wrong. There is a price that comes with the concept of sacrifice and I fail to see one in this situation.
For those that still doubt this standard need only to turn to the Bible. Jesus tells us in Matthew 26:28, “…for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”
That “sacrifice” cost the highest price—the Son of God nailed to a cross. The prize? Not an Olympic game and not just for the children of the U.S—but for whosoever will believe!
Now that’s better than a gold medal!
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