Costly Sacrifice

Then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever. 

—Exodus 21:6

I, Olivia Barrett, have been nailed to the doorpost of heaven, and am now a bondservant of my Master, Christ Jesus. I now and for eternity devote my life—time, talents, and treasures to the furthering of the kingdom and to the pleasing of my Lord, not of man. (Galatians 1:10)

I have only just begun this journey, but so far, I have been radically rocked for Jesus. The journey began three months ago when I moved to Montana, U.S.A. to attend a missionary training school called Potters Field Ranch. At this school I learned what it looked like to live as a bondservant, and decided that it was what I wanted for myself.

I now live in Uganda, Africa and am in the full swing of serving the Lord with everything I have inside of me. I, along with the six other members of my team will be living here for six months. Afterwards I will be pleased to go and do whatever it may be that the Lord has for me. This blog is where I will be recording lessons and insights learned and discovered by the team and myself.

Today I learned an important lesson about servant-hood; I feel that it is important that I share this lesson first and foremost. In the book of Habakkuk we’re told to write down the things the Lord gives us so that we may always run back to them when we would rather run away; then we continue to run with the words of the Lord. (Habakkuk 2:2) So, the verse the Lord gave me today was 1 Chronicles 21:24.

But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offering that cost me nothing.”

We are so far from home, in a lifestyle that is so different than what we are used to. Eating foods we’ve never had, washing all of our laundry by hand, praying the electricity and water last throughout the week, traveling mostly by foot, having to communicate with people who don’t speak the same language as us, and on goes the list. From time to time I find my mind wandering towards ways I could have served the Lord in a more comfortable fashion…and then this verse comes to mind.

Look at God, our perfect example. He gave everything—His one and only Son, to take the sins and save us, an ungrateful and undeserving people. In comparison the Lord has simply asked us to say goodbye to our families, and our comforts of life in the U.S. for a time while we travel to the ends of the earth.

I heard someone once say, “Missionaries are stepping stones to Christ”, I agree. Now the question is, as a missionary, am I willing to be stepped on? Am I willing to put my own comfort aside and give a costly sacrifice to help others? It is so easy to give something as long as the sacrifice is measured, as long as it doesn’t hurt too much, but that’s not true love—that’s not true servant-hood.

If I truly am nailed to the doorpost of heaven I should be willing, and even desiring, to go to the ends of the earth; past all comfort and familiarity to serve my Master. I will give my life to the Lord, I will not offer as much as is easy to let go of. He will have all of me, even when I kick and scream and want to hold tight to parts of myself. I will offer my life as a sacrifice.