Sacrifice…Why's it so hard to believe?

          At the beginning of August, I went on a lead team retreat for the new young adults ministry (nine twenty-three) at my church. Our first morning, after a delicious breakfast and group devotional to open the day, we were asked to read 1 Corinthians 1-3.  I went and sat under this big pine tree with the sun shining on me and started reading and taking notes. As I was reading chapter one there was a question that stuck in my mind that I'd like to dig into a little bit:
             
            Why is it so hard to believe in a God that would sacrifice His only Son?
        
          I would like to first look at 1 Corinthians 1: 25 " For the foolishness of God is stronger than human strength." When I first read that I was thinking…that's not right…God's not foolish! So instead of plowing right along, without stopping to think about what it means, I decided to pause and think about what it could mean. I was stuck on the word foolish, and from what I know foolish is similar to stupid, not smart, illogical, uneducated (you can be smart and uneducated, I'm just saying a few stereotypes), and more. I don't recall seeing foolish used in a positive way before, but I decided to try it- but I had to think about who it was talking about too.  The verse is talking about God, who is all powerful and a loving God, so how can He be foolish? God…I believe in God, and have grown up going to church and thinking God as good my whole life and not some evil, vengeful God who is foolish. So if it's not a negative way of foolish, it's not God, it's not me (or believers)…what about those who don't believe…what about their viewpoint? Those who don't believe…why would they think God is foolish…and then it clicked.
         Why would an all-powerful God sacrifice His only son? - To the world that seems like a really foolish thing to do- it just doesn't make sense! God could've done a number of things to redeem His creation, wipe out sin, or make everyone follow Him. But He chose to show His love to us through sacrifice. When someone gives up something that they love, and is super special to them it does wonder's and shows great love. So God decided to use sacrifice to show His love for us.
         Back to my original question:
               
                Why is it so hard to believe in a God that would sacrifice His only Son?

           I started pondering that question trying to pin-point it. I started thinking about how self-centered we are in the world right now. Everything is catered to the individual and it's all about ME or I.  I think I was at church and the speaker was talking about this topic…like iPhone, iPod, Myspace, Facebook, selfies and so much more. Our culture is very self-centered and people are constantly focused on how to one-up the other and more. Last year before the young adults group was named 923, and was just getting started and meeting in a house, we were doing a series by Andy Stanley about "ER". Meaning that we are obsessed with being better, richer, happier, skinnier, smarter, funnier, prettier and many other things…where you compare yourselves with others. So we live in an extremely self-centered society…so sacrifice wouldn't be a common act, or one we understand and can feel connected to right? That's why it would be so difficult to understand why God would do that…right?
           Maybe not. I started thinking about a movie I had just seen titled "Guardians of the Galaxy". In the movie a group of misfits makes a great team and there are a few instances of sacrifice in the movie alone (I'm not going to go specific on this one because it's so new and I don't want to spoil the funny film). Let's take a look at some other movies as well.  Frozen for example, shows a loving sacrifice as Elsa is about to get slain by a sword, when her sister Anna (who is freezing to death, and so close to her "kiss" -act of true love- to save her) runs up and goes to stop the sword, saves her sister, and freezes in the process. Watch the clip below to see (found on youtube):

           We also see many wonderful sacrifices throughout Lord of the Rings. I don't know how many times Sam sacrificed himself for Frodo in some way or another. In many super-hero movies there are sacrifices as well. The iconic and instant classic "Titanic" shows sacrifice as well. Jack and Rose are both freezing in the middle of the Atlantic after the unsinkable ship has sunk, and there's some debris floating around. Instead of being selfish Jack is a gentleman, and knowing he'll probably die, he let's Rose go onto the debris to get out of the literally freezing water. He encourages her to keep going on,        and by this act, he ended up sacrificing his life for Rose, who ended up getting rescued and lived. With all this exposure in the media, people get moved and connected to the characters in books and movies. You even hear of sacrifice when you turn on the t.v. and watch the news. There are sacrifices in media, so why is it so hard to comprehend that God would partake in a sacrifice so big? It seems like on one hand we understand sacrifice and on the other we're clueless.

          

               Why is it so hard to believe in a God that would sacrifice His only Son?

      Honestly, I don't have an answer on why it's hard for people in our culture to understand this. I mentioned it to some of my friends in the group and here is one idea I got. The movies are for the most part fiction, and they last for and average of an hour and a half to two hours-ish. That's not a long time, it can maybe give you a temporary sense of sacrifice and you may ponder it a little…if you like to think about things, or you may just move on with your day. Whatever the case, it doesn't have a permanent affect. It's temporary and fast-paced. Now this just occurred to me. How many people actually read their Bible and are exposed to the sacrifices there? But at the same time, we didn't live back when Jesus was on Earth…so on the flipside how do people believe as well? The easy answer is faith, but based on the society and culture for what I said for disconnect…then what is it for those who make the connections? I know what I believe and where I stand, but I can't generalize everyone, and I believe that anyone can come to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus wants us all to be with Him again one day, but the questions is: Will you accept the sacrifice, take up your cross and follow Him? I want to close this the same way I opened it.  But I would love if you would think about the question and leave a comment and share an opinion to the question that sparked this post. I have attached a clip below to Jeremy Camp's song "This Man" - with film and picture adaptations throughout about Jesus, His life, sacrifice, and resurrection (found on youtube).

               Why is it so hard to believe in a God that would sacrifice His only Son?

    

                          

                                                                         

                       

The Giver of Life

The Giver:  
Before you read this post I want to let you know there are SPOILERS about the book/movie. I encourage you to read this after either reading the book or seeing the movie, both are fantastic! If you don't care if the movie or book gets spoiled, please keep reading =) Feel free to keep the page open on your browser if you want to come back and read the post after seeing the movie or reading the book (or both), feel free to like the blog on Facebook (Crossroads Corner-Jessica Moe) or follow it on Twitter (twitter.com/CrossroadsCornr). If you are currently ready for the blog, keep on reading =)
 

     I want to quick take you back to when I was in middle school reading The Giver by Lois Lowry for the first time. I fell in love with the book and story, and tapped a little into some of the controversial topics in it. Years went by and when I was in college I was taking a Juvenile Literature class, and I got to read The Giver again! When I read it this time, I had a better understanding of what a dystopian society was, more knowledge of our world, the controversy in the book, and understood it so much better. I was excited when I heard they were making a movie…and have been crazy busy it snuck up on me…but was counting down the days the week it released.

     I want to look at a few things about the movie. First, I'll say generally some things that I liked and didn't like. The following part will be relating to the human race, and lastly but definitely not least relating it to our faith.

     In the novel, the children receive their jobs at the age of twelve. I feel that the movie did it at high school graduation, because that is common in our culture, and maybe they thought it would be too intense for a twelve year old to experience everything Jonas did. I also thought, maybe it was because they don't want people thinking it is a kids movie. As I was discussing this last night, I kept going back and forth, because I see benefits of having it the way they made the movie, but I can also see how impactful it could be with a twelve year old experiencing all of this. I taught sixth grade last year as well, the majority of my class loved The Hunger Games books and movies as well as the Divergent  books and movies. So I could see twelve year olds enjoying The Giver as well, and I was around twelve the first time I read it. I remember one of the first hints of pain Jonas felt in the book was breaking his leg while sledding, which they left out of the movie (I can't always handle broken bones in film) but I feel it would have went well with the sled build up. As I was posting a preview to what this blog would be on, on my Facebook page, I was looking for a trailer to attach. The first trailer I saw was in color, and I was hoping that the movie would be in black and white like the book and move into color. I found a black and white trailer and was happy when I saw that the movie did the transition.
 
     In The Giver, they try to create a perfect society where  everyone is equal…pure equality.  I mean a society without fighting and bad things sounds great, but my question is…at what cost? There were times while watching the movie where it was cool to see organization and structure, where everyone knew their roles and what they need to do and are expected to do. As a teacher setting rules and expectations is a crucial component to classroom management. So when the structure and expectations were followed, it made me think of when my class has a procedure nailed down. Yet, at the same time there was an eeriness through the movie as well. The way everyone would clap, and chant the name "Jonas" honestly kinda freaked me out. I would love my class to call and response when appropriate such as when practicing phonograms, but the movie was just too much. There are times when uniform is appropriate, but not the whole society. They took away all the bad and the good along with it, memories were erased, and they were lied to about what they were doing…now we get into the morally controversial dilemma.
       I think this moral dilemma should have it's own paragraph with it. In college I took a Contemporary Moral Issues class, which was fantastic, but I remember we discussed and maybe even debated euthenasia. I will say The Giver deals with euthanasia in a sense…but if you think about it…it's more. In the book and movie, when they kill someone they call it "releasing"…it's a much prettier and kinder word, and makes it sound like they are going somewhere else, like a different part of the world. To me it didn't seem like releasing meant being released into heaven or hell.  People assumed those released went to a different society. For example, when the elderly reach a certain age they are released, one in this society-I would assume- would think of these elderly people going into a society with more elderly to live well in retirement. Yet the word "release" in this sense is much much darker. It means they are killed. For all I know, those who can watch a release thinks it's a way to transport them. I also wanted to say they release the old, but what about those elderly who are nice and healthy and still strong. In the book, it mentions an elderly woman talking highly about being released and her excitement, when it's only matter of time until her life is over. They also release babies who aren't strong enough (after a certain amount of time…when they can totally survive), which I would relate to the abortion topic, yet these little ones have already been out of the womb for length of time and it's like, "Ok, you're not good enough…bye bye"…which is horrible! There are so many great stories of people who were maybe premature, smaller, people who have gone through great trials and have overcome all these different things and live great lives. Taking a life is horrible in many circumstances, especially when they have plenty of life yet, that goes for the elderly as well…there's a reason they are still here.

        I want to tie it into our faith. God is omnipotent, meaning all-powerful and He can totally do what He wants. God desperately wants each and every one of us to take up our crosses daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23), to strive to be like Him, and love Him with all of our hearts desires. Some may then ask, " If He's all powerful, why wouldn't He make everyone love Him the way He wants to be loved?" A simple answer would be: that isn't Love. God loves us soo unbelievably much that He is willing to be denied to give us the choice to authentically and genuinely follow Him. Think about it, if someone makes you do something, is it really you're choice? The answer is NO! Maybe you'll want to do it anyways, but you feel much better when you make a choice. I got into the habit growing up, when I'd be reminded to say thank you for dinner or something…I wouldn't want to because someone reminded me…I wanted to do it in my own time. Reminder's are good, but I want it to be genuine, so maybe it'll come right away maybe later. Just like how God wants us to love Him genuinely and whole-heartedly. I was talking to my grandma about the movie the other day and our faith as well, and she mentioned how God really is the GIVER of life. He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for us so that we may live and have eternal life…God gave the ultimate sacrifice and He is the ultimate Giver!

      The Giver get's rid of all emotions, and memories, and the people in the society don't know what love is and many other things. The whole society walked around like zombies without real emotions, and it made me said. I looked at my faith, I would so much rather have the free-will to chose to follow God, because I want to, rather than being forced to. Yes, there is something in all of us humans that is looking for something more…which is God, so there's times that can lead us towards Him, but I follow Him because I genuinely want to. I also looked at human life and would so much rather live with hurt, fear, love, joy, sorrow, sadness, compassion, kindness, peace, heartache and more with no emotions at all. I'd rather have to go through both good and bad, than not really live. So you need to ask yourself two questions. Are you following God because you've been told to and it's what everyone around you seems to do, or have you made that decision for yourself?  Is it not better to live with pain, suffering, heartache, love laughter, good and bad emotions, rather than not truly live?


Photo Credit from Google images