Sacrifice

Yesterday, 21 August 2018, the Muslim world celebrated Eid Al Adha to commemorate Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God's command. But prior to that holy sacrifice, God provided him with a ram in lieu of his precious child. In remembrance of that, every Eid Al Adha our Muslim brothers and sisters sacrifice an animal and divide it to three (3) parts --

• for the poor and needy; 
• for the relatives, friends and neighors, and; 
• for the family

Last night I felt blessed to hear the sacrifice story of my landlady. Her youngest brother died of kidney failure. For a decade she gave it her all to provide a substantial amount for every chemotherapy thrice a week, chiropratric treatment, medicines and related expenses. Her daughter studied very hard to maintain scholarship so that the money they could save for the tuition could be spent for the uncle's medical needs. What a great sacrifice! God sees all. When her daughter graduated, she had was awarded with 25 medals to recognize her academic and leadership excellence.

As I am writing my eyes are somewhat teary. In today's world, she is one in a million! In times when she had nothing in her pocket, she had to dispose of whatever she had just to help extend the life of his dying brother. Not even once that she told him that she was financially drained. Instead she always assured him that she would fight for his life so he must hang on there. How many of us can do this for our family member?

For 25 years her father worked in the Middle East. He was one of those Filipino pioneers seeking a greener pasture in the Gulf countries. She grew up with an absentee father. Her mother raised her up well. When her father finally decided to retire, she worked in Dubai as the offer was irresistible. But when her father got sick, she tendered her resignation effective immediately to take care of him. Faithful as she was, she realized that God was gracious and merciful that all her needs for the medical expenses, daily survival, payments for property she acquired, etc., were provided with ease.  Later it was her mother who got ill, and again, she did not leave her. Can we do the same for our ailing parents?

When she returned to Dubai, she was offered a gainful employment by a contracting company. For some years, things were consistently good. The company business was running perfectly good. But some people were bad. His employer's partners and some men in his circle fooled him and took his money away. She has not left him until the end while others whom he helped put him to oblivion as for some months he has been in cell.

With all life's hits, she remains calm, She is the type of woman who will let you feel that things will always be fine despite a very stressful situation. Her compassion and loyalty are a magnet and a mirror if you are one with that sort of stuff in you. For me it is a source of inner joy to discover that there are still people like her who still exist and live life as how it should be lived meaningfully. Few of us do.

Tonight she would fly back home for the last viewing of her brother, lifeless, but his messages of gratefulness sent to her mobile phone are full of life. I could feel the pain of losing someone you dearly love and fought for. I could feel the heavy heart and if I could only do something to alleviate that pain, I would do it.

Reflecting on this, how many times did I sacrifice for my loved ones? Is it worth it all that I emptied myself almost of everything? I have figured it out that no sacrifice is in vain if you believe you do it for a cause. There are pains sometimes but joy dominates the pains when I realize that I am still alive, still drawing that very, very firm will to carry on from God's strength that does not dry and keeps flowing.

She taught me about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love... That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. [ Veronica Roth, 'Allegiant' ] 

Sometimes I heard some ungrateful people saying to me that those sacrifices were my choices, anyway -- after giving them a precious part of me.  "Thank you and God bless you," I would whisper.

I wish someone would echo Veronica Roth's lines: "She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love... That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own."

My sacrifices, my choice, undoubtedly yes. It was my choice to do good things and provide a bridge for dear ones who, I thought,  needed my strength because they did not have enough strength of their own, that time. It was not that I wanted to play as a heroine to be praised or whatever for my own glory, as I did things silently. It was just I felt their happiness was far more important than my own. Some sacrifices led me to a different path of inner joy and peace. Nothing is wrong with this.

Regrets? No regret at all. I think I did the right thing way back then. I could not dwell in the past. No person is bad even if sometimes the actions are bad.

When you sacrifice something for someone, you do not expect him / her  to do the same to you. But at least not being ignored when you communicate with him / her will give you a good feeling. These days there are many 'zombies', walking dead. Many people have enough time to scroll down their gadgets, play online games, and watch many episodes of Netflix non-stop, but will not care to give you even a minute of 'hi' and 'hello'.  What to do, yanni*?

With sacrifice goes voluntary submission of self. We do not sacrifice something because of external forces pushing us to do so, as there are a thousand of ways to say "NO".  It is all about personal will. A husband working overseas away from the family will sacrifice everything not because his father, mother, siblings and friends tell him so, but because it is his own will to do so; there is deliberate submission of self to a higher calling -- to be God's holy caretaker of the family given to him, to meet his family's needs.

There are very important and inspiring people in my life who sacrificed a precious part of them for me.  They are great souls. My mind is very clear of who they are and what they are to me. I am willing to give up a part of me in order to do the things I care about for people I do sincerely love and for people who deeply care for me. I know I have to be more passionately mindful of life and living, work harder and deliberately sacrifice more these days than ever. This is the ultimate test of my conscience.

Sacrifice is love. Sacrifice is a necessity. Love is a necessity.  It is indispensable.

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*"yanni" - Arabic word which means "you know"

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Photo credits:  Pixabay