Love involves sacrifice

By Jeff Becraft

 

My best pair of jeans have a hole in each knee.

Lest you think I am that hip, they are not skinny jeans.

And I did not buy them with holes in them.

I can tell you right now that every pair of pants I own that have holes in them, I earned those holes… and this pair of drawers isn’t any different.

One time years ago, I had gotten some new jeans. And one day I was wearing them as I was out just kind of strolling on our street in front of our house. The next thing I know, here comes a cat just hauling buggy right past me. Then I see just a few feet behind the cat our first dog, the original hound dog, hauling buggy after the cat. I know this is not a good situation, so I take off and I am hauling buggy after the hound dog. (This dog was the most ornery creature this side of the ark. As one friend of mine described his dog – “She loved us and hated the world.”)

Now this is back in the day so I could at least run a little bit faster than I can now. I followed them down the street running as hard as I could. Eventually, the cat goes into a sewer drain. The hound dog is standing there with its head stuck down in the drain. (Now the hound dog had no concept of streets or cars and I am convinced there was more than one time when God Himself sent His angels to rescue this dog when it had gotten out into traffic… which is worth its own email.)

I knew this was my chance.

The cat was safe at this point… this was all about getting the hound dog off the streets.

If the hound dog ever got out of the backyard, it was hard to round her up. (We got the dog on the sidewalk in front of Walmart – you can get everything at the Plastic Palace – but that was in an email years ago.)

I dove onto the asphalt for the dog. I was able to get ahold of her and so I picked her up, which was no easy task. I am carrying the hound dog back to our house and I notice that my knee is hurting. I look down and there is this big ol’ hole in the knee of my fairly new jeans and blood was coming out.

I thought, “Doggone you, Biscuit (no pun intended)… I just got these jeans and now because you’re out harassing neighborhood cats, there’s a hole in them.” It’s obvious where that hole came from… those kind of things happen when you go diving onto asphalt.

But the hound dog was valuable to us. She was part of the family. She was worth the holes and the blood. And even though she was the one who had done wrong, I carried her back to our home and bore her weight so she could be where she was loved and provided for.

Out of love for the dog (and for our family), it was a sacrifice I chose to make.

Love involves sacrifice. This sacrifice was extremely small in the grand scheme of things. There are other sacrifices that are much more costly. And the rescuing of life is always of utmost importance. The hound dog is simply a small picture of that.

I am thankful for those who have made sacrifices for me in my life.

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected].