Sacrifice isn't a subject we like to think about very much. Society today is much more interested in acquiring things than in giving up anything. Yet sacrifice, in its true sense, is not something to be avoided but a very positive step in our spiritual growth.

If you are reading this periodical, you're probably seeking a better understanding of God. To know God, even to begin to understand Him, is the greatest blessing any of us can have. Yet we read in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding." ^{Science and Health, p. 16.}

Mortal mind, the false, limited sense of life in matter, never wants to sacrifice any of its materiality. It defines good in material terms and then clings ferociously to its material sense of good—to all the material things and pleasures it likes and wants. Yet each material sacrifice, made for the good of others or for the sake of Principle, takes us a step forward in spiritual growth. We find new blessings coming to us directly from God to replace in better ways what we thought we had given up. For each sacrifice of the material sense of good that we make, we are richly recompensed with a higher good—good that is spiritual, that comes from God and yet is manifested in humanly tangible ways that meet our present needs. In this way our trust in God is strengthened. Step by step we gain a higher concept of sacrifice, and eventually we see that all we have really been sacrificing is various aspects of the false belief that good is material and limited.

The "great sacrifice of material things," which we all need to make eventually, probably begins for most of us with small sacrifices. Through them we learn not to be afraid to sacrifice. For example, perhaps a friend or co-worker asks us to give up precious time from our own concerns to help him with a problem. Or perhaps a family member in need asks for financial help we think we can ill afford. Perhaps we must consider sacrificing a relationship that we desperately want but know in our heart is not in everyone's best interest. Or perhaps a long-cherished goal or plan suddenly needs to be rethought or even abandoned.

When we find ourselves faced with such demands, it's helpful to remember that what we must first give up is a belief in limitation—a belief that the good in our lives lies in limited human commodities such as time or money, or that it can be found only in specific human relationships and activities. Good is God. Therefore it is spiritual, ever present, ever available. God's means for blessing us are infinite. They are never limited to the particular human channel we may have outlined.

I gained a new outlook on sacrifice one day when I was reading the Bible story in which the prophet Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice in order to persuade the people to worship God rather than Baal. ^{See I Kings 18:21–39 .} In this account, Baal's prophets sacrifice a bullock on their altar and call upon their gods to send down fire, but with no success. Elijah then has the people pour twelve barrels of water over the bullock on the altar of the Lord. Then he calls upon God. The Bible tells us, "Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench."

In studying this story I became interested in reading some of the surrounding context—the before and after—and I discovered that this event had occurred during a famine brought on by a severe drought. People, livestock, and vegetation were all dying from the lack of water. And immediately after the sacrifice and Elijah's demonstration of God's power, he retired to a mountaintop and prayed, and his prayer was answered. "And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain." ^{I Kings 18:45.}

As I read the surrounding context of this narrative and saw that it was set as the climax of a three-year drought, the pouring of twelve barrels of water on the altar suddenly took on new significance for me. What, after all, was the most difficult sacrifice that the people were making at Elijah's command—the bullock or the water? It seems a remarkable fact that after a three-year drought, with no end in sight, the people were willing to pour out twelve barrels of carefully stored water. It must have seemed to them that their very lives depended on that precious water. Yet they were willing to trust Elijah and perform this act of sacrifice even before seeing any evidence of God's power.

And God's answer came, not just in fire, impressive though that was, but in rain: rain that broke the drought, rain to make the grass grow again, rain to fill the streams and wells and cisterns, to refill the barrels, to revive man and beast.

As I pondered this lesson in sacrifice, I began to see that when we come to times in our lives when a sacrifice of something precious is being asked of us, we too can look to God and trust Him to provide us with all good. Giving up our false belief that good is limited brings us more abundant good and leads us to a higher and larger understanding of good as spiritual and permanent.

This is not, however, a process of bargaining with God. (I'll pour out my twelve barrels of water if you promise me you'll send rain.) And the limited, material sense of things, which we call mortal mind, will certainly always be arguing that we're going to end up with nothing. So sacrifice requires a genuine trust in God, a willingness to "go first" with no material guarantees. Sacrifice proclaims by deed, rather than mere words, our trust in God's provision of all we can ever really need. When we pour out our twelve barrels of water, we can't be sure in advance whether we're going to get rain or not; but we trust God enough to go ahead, with confidence that He'll provide whatever is needed. His ways and means are infinite; they're often unforeseen and surprising; they bring us joy and thankfulness; and as we ponder them they lift us to an ever higher level of trust.

Christ Jesus gave us the ultimate example of sacrifice. By giving up his mortal sense of life, he exemplified a higher understanding of life for all of us. Because of his courageous act, his willing sacrifice, his trust in God, we all can see that life is spiritual and eternal, that it is not in matter and cannot be snuffed out by death.

When we are faced with the demand for a sacrifice, large or small, what we're really faced with is the demand to recognize the infinitude of good. We're being asked to recognize that our heavenly Father has infinite means to bless our lives, endless possibilities for even better scenarios than the one that the human mind has its heart set on. That's why we need never fear to sacrifice, because each time we do sacrifice, even in small instances, we discover more of the joy of trusting God and see more of the infinite, ever-present, spiritual nature of good. This spiritual good then enters into our lives as blessings, tangible and intangible, welcome as rain upon a dry earth, causing our lives to bud and blossom and grow toward God.