WHEN LOVE GOES UNAPPRECIATED (Behind my new year resolution)
Jesus was the love of God given to men. What took Jesus to the cross was love. Jesus was love personified. But on the day of crucifixion, love went unappreciated. Love endured the cross to be sacrificed for our sins but men couldn’t see it. On his way to be crucified, they threw things at love. They mocked love. They even spat on love and cursed love as love struggled with the cross on his shoulder through the blood thirsty crowd, all for our sake. Eventually, love had to give up on the cross and die. When love goes unappreciated, it will eventually die. Another example was what happened in the love relationship between God and man in the Garden of Eden when man broke the heart of God. God became angry and drove man out of the garden and passed judgment against man.
Last year was one of the very best of my life because I made a very simple resolution for that year. It was the simplest new year resolution I have ever made. I just told myself that I would take good care of myself. That was it. So simple, yet, it proved to be very effective. Maybe not that simple for a person like me who has spent most of his life sacrificing for others. I believe my experience about sacrificing for people puts me in a very credible position to say this about human beings:
1. Human beings easily forget.
2. Even if they remember, most of them don’t care about how good you are to them.
3. You choose them 50 times over yourself they will choose themselves 100 times over you.
4. Human beings are selfish.
5. Many won’t appreciate you for your sacrifice, they will take you for granted.
6. As you keep sacrificing for them, a time may come they will sacrifice you for others. It happened to Jesus.
7. Once you keep sacrificing for them they begin to think that you are comfortable with sacrificing. And so when it becomes critical you are the one they will choose to betray.
It is expected and very important to say “thank you” when someone does something for you. It shows appreciation. But true appreciation is not just words, it is attitude. The attitude of the person towards you will reveal the true state of the person’s heart. Whether the person is grateful or not.
It is also good to sacrifice for others. For it is written, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” But it is useless if it won’t be appreciated. Love is sacrifice. It eventually dies when it is not appreciated. Christ sacrificed his life for us once. And he expects us to show appreciation by accepting this sacrifice of love and acknowledge him as our Lord and Saviour. Else, there will be consequences on judgment day. It is for a reason that Christ went through all the pain and humiliation he went through. We make it useless if we do not appreciate it. When love goes unappreciated it dies eventually. And when it dies judgment follows.
So my resolution to take good care of myself last year was a judgment call when I realized the ingratitude of men. I enjoyed that year. I never knew I had so much power, and I kept giving it to people who didn’t value and appreciate it.
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