I would give all to Thee

I noticed a recurring theme in many of the entries in this issue of "The Other Sheep", which was the topic of sacrifice. It was really interesting to read the missionaries ideas about what a person had to sacrifice to follow Jesus. Things like money, material comforts, selfishness, and self reliance were all things the missionaries listed that needed to be given up. It made me think about what it really takes to serve Jesus with your whole heart. I think for me, personally. it would be an incredibly hard thing to give up things like warm comforters, microwaves, laptops, and cell phones. Of course, the missionaries were not saying that missionaries could not have any of these comforts, but basically said that one needed to put those on the back burner, so to speak. In today's society, we are taught to continuously buy material thing and continuously gain more and more wealth, and that is what is supposed to make us happy and fulfilled. Yet these writers put it into perspective, that if a person wants to serve God whole-heartedly they need to change their mindset. It is hard for me to grasp what it fully means to completely hand over my life to God when I have the incessant need to have control over things in my life. I was amazed on how much these missionaries gave up to serve God and to bring others to Him. Lastly, on line that made me stop in think in this article was this, "Not just a part, or half of my heart, I would give all to Thee." This statement made me start to think about in the past when I "tried" to give God my whole life, yet I ended up just giving the convenient parts to Him. Am I willing to make a complete sacrifice?