A Sacrificial Servant

Have you ever heard of the series 30 for 30™? It is an ESPN™ television/film series that highlights some of the most monumental moments in sports. There are typically 30 episodes per season, each 30 minutes in length. Each episode talks through a moment, event or person, and their impact on the world. Many of the episodes are truly inspirational and leave me striving to be the best version of myself.

Thinking of the show today, and having just celebrated Chelsy’s 30th birthday, makes me think of the highlights of my wife's purposeful life. So many of the 30 for 30 episodes feature people making extreme sacrifices to help their team, spouse, child, or friend succeed. This is the essence of Chelsy. So, for Chelsy’s 30th birthday, I wanted to create my own “episode” of 30 for 30 but instead of the greatest moments in sports, I will highlight some of the most important events that have transpired recently in our lives, and the inspiration that Chelsy continues to provide me and everyone else around her.

If you know Chelsy personally, you know firsthand her ability to love people by serving them, and many times this comes through sacrificing herself for others. Keeping with the sports theme, in baseball, when at least one teammate is already on a base and you softly tap the baseball with the intention of advancing the runner(s) to the next base, it’s called a “sacrifice bunt.” In other words, you give up your own chance at hitting a homerun or getting your own base hit for the hope of helping the team. A “sacrifice bunt” is a great example of the definition of sacrifice – the act of putting others ahead of yourself.

While we all may have a slightly different definition, sacrifice is a current, and yet historic term. Sacrificial acts are seen all around us in the news today, and this concept is spread throughout the Bible. A few years back (I won’t say how many since we’re telling ourselves that 30 isn’t that old!), Chelsy visited the Dominican Republic. There were mothers asking her and other women if they would take their babies and care for them since they knew an American could offer their children a better quality of life. We see this every day in America too, with the choices that women are facing to provide for and raise families. Talk about sacrifice! In Biblical times, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his child to carry out God’s command. And of course, God exampled by sending Jesus, who made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to allow us to be forgiven of our sins.

In true transparency, I feel like I am writing this and “preaching to the choir.” As I am writing this today, I am experiencing a level of discomfort. I’m sitting in one of the most uncomfortable chairs imaginable. It’s stiff, the armrests are not functional, I am hunched over because I don’t reach the back support, and for those that care, it is a hideous moss green color. Yuck! But as I complain, it is extremely and painfully obvious my reasoning. You see, my view is even harder than the base of this chair. I’m sitting next to an uncomfortable child that just had surgery on Thursday, chemotherapy Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, total body radiation Tuesday and Wednesday, a bone marrow transplant and then a whole slew of side effects for the weeks, months, and years to come. Like our Heavenly Father, as a Dad, I am sacrificing my comfort, wants and needs to provide support, peace and assurance to my suffering child.

As a family, we have prayed for ways to share Jesus with our friends, family and community. We felt called to do so through our Facebook page and this blog. Chelsy and I choose to surrender privacy to keep everyone updated on Aria’s care, and more importantly, to ask for as many prayers from this earth as possible. It is sometimes a painful and uncomfortable topic for us to discuss, but one that we (especially Chelsy) share openly with everyone through these media outlets. We feel that it is important for you to know what she is going through because there are so many people that ask about her and care for her. But all in all, we have chosen to remove barriers of privacy from our lives because Jesus has called us to do so as His servants. We have been chosen to make these sacrifices to share the love of Jesus with the world and to display some of His grace through our faith. All for His glory.

It has been painful. It has been hard. Jesus has called us to serve others through surrendering our lives to Him. We believe Jesus is calling us all to surrender our lives to Him, we just need to remember to be a sacrificial servant.

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

Sacrificing is a choice, and my wife Chelsy is the most sacrificial person that I have ever met. Throughout our lives together, she has put herself second in many ways. She gives up her own time to make time for the important people in her life. Occupying 3 busy kids is way more difficult than my job and most others, but Chelsy always finds a way to spend quality time with our kids, whether it is making crafts, doing makeup, playing board games, watching Bluey, or dressing up as princesses, etc. One of the biggest sacrifices that she made was to leave her job to stay at home with our kids. And she would tell you, she is now sacrificing her sanity to raise them! Even in the most unfortunate circumstances, she wants to sacrifice her wants, needs and desires to serve others...to serve Jesus.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

Maybe you are like me, and you don't even know where to begin looking for what God has called you to be. There are so many distractions that can keep our eyes fixed on the earthly world around us and not on the bigger plan that is set in place by the one above. Through our trials the only way we preserve is through faith and surrender. From what I have been learning, I hope to encourage you. Lay down your life to live for God’s plan for you. Ask God to show you the things He wants you to sacrifice to fulfill His purpose. Love people like Jesus shows us to in the Bible. Put others above yourself.

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of celebrating the marriage of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Chelsy was the matron of honor, and all 3 of our girls were in the wedding. It was a beautiful day – I could see the unconditional love in Kayla and Kaden’s eyes from the moment that she started walking down the aisle. But what really captivated me during their wedding was their vows, which I’ve heard many times before but felt a little bit differently this time as I began to think about what they will be sacrificing for one another.

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Ephesians 5:21-27

A God-centered marriage is an amazing example of what it means to be a sacrificial servant. When a man and woman come before God to become husband and wife, the bride agrees to put everything she has into her groom, to love him with all of her heart, and the groom must do likewise. Her burdens become his burdens; his sins become her sins. (Side note: nowhere in the Bible does it say a wife is second to her husband. What it does say is that our spouse should be our second priority only to God. Husbands—It is time to put your wife above your children and earthly items. Men—We need to treat women as our equal partners!) God intended for a husband and wife to respect one another as teammates, love each other as Jesus loves us, putting each other before themselves and serving each other, so together they grow closer to God and each other. Serving is love, and not just to your spouse but to family, friends, co-workers and even those with differing opinions.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

In Chelsy’s thirty years, she has done an incredible job of serving others through her sacrifices. She has taught me more about the love of Jesus, the love for other people and the best way that love can be shown: as a sacrificial servant.

Lay down your life to live for God’s plan for you. Ask God to show you the things He wants you to sacrifice to fulfill His purpose. Love people like Jesus shows us to in the Bible. Put others above yourself.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:10-11

Like the inspirational ESPN show 30 for 30, I hope these paragraphs are a good reminder to you all to find the person that puts you above themselves, but more importantly find a person who inspires you to be a sacrificial servant to the Holy one above who gave us all the ultimate sacrifice, and deserves all the glory.

I promise, serving Jesus doesn't feel like a sacrifice at all.

I love my wife.

Here’s to more years of loving Jesus together.

-Adam