The Human Need to Give

There is a sense in which this can’t be explained, but it surely needs to be declared: Every human desperately needs to sacrifice for others.

I’m not talking about our need for others to love us; that’s real but it’s beside my point. The issue here is that we cannot approach God’s favor and our design as humans without finding a desire to sacrifice something of ourselves. Without the impulse and at least the attempt to give, we cannot be fully human.

Granted, there is a lot that has to happen before most people can get there. Only a few people enter adulthood with a readiness to give and accept their own experience of deprivation without it being something perverse. It does show up as a self-destructive tendency all too often. What we are referring to is the heart-led impulse.

The ability to sacrifice for all the right reasons shows an inherent acceptance that this world is not worth taking seriously. It hints at a trust in God as our Provider (“Jehova Jireh”). But it’s not something you get only in the bonus round of holiness. It’s a very basic element in finding yourself.