Consider the Cost

Many people in my life have taught me the value of generosity and the importance of sacrificing personal comforts and wants for the goodness of others.  And I feel indebted to those people for the way it has shaped my life and my desire to be more selfless.  Although, I honestly admit that it is a daily struggle for me to not think of myself first.  I find incredible joy in giving to others, even when it costs a great price.  Because I have been on the receiving end of others’ sacrificial generosity and felt the indescribable blessing that comes over me upon receipt of such love and kindness.  And every day we are showered with sacrificial generosity, but often we are too busy to see it.  Sometimes we notice it, but neglect to express our gratitude.  Perhaps it’s right in front of us, yet we cannot even begin to grasp its height, depth, or width.


The interesting thing about generosity and sacrifice, if you actually stop to think about it, is that it’s never really deserved.  If it was deserved, then we would call it a reward.  Generosity and sacrifice are gifts.  The value of a gift is found in its worth and what it cost the giver.

Today of all days, I am left speechless at the very thought of a gift that was given to me before I took my first breath, before I was a twinkle in my parents’ eyes, before the foundation of this very earth.  There was a gift being prepared.  But, this was a gift unlike any other ever given.  It was hand crafted and perfectly made for a recipient who was, knowingly, ungrateful and undeserving.  The gift came from a heart overflowing with mercy and grace to a heart crusted and clogged with deceit, selfishness, and anything ugly that you can possibly imagine. 

To think that Someone would endure rejection, ridicule, hatred, physical beatings, emotional distress, spiritual turmoil, social embarrassment, and degradation in order to pay the ransom for a person who desperately needed to be saved and shown mercy, yet never asked for it…it’s mind boggling.  How can I reason, in my finite mind, that Someone would leave a place of perfection and live in a place filled with hatred, sickness, and rebellion in order to save the very people who spat at His face, nailed His loving hands to a brutal wooden cross, hurled insults at His perfect soul, and took His earthly life in a gruesome, torturous manner.  It’s “love so amazing, so divine” that it “demands my soul, my life, my all.”

My heart has been wrapped around these living words all day.  I pray that they bring you comfort, conviction, compassion, hope…whatever God may use to reveal Himself in a fresh way.

Mark 10:45

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Ephesians 2:8

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--

James 1:17

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Isaiah 53

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”