What makes a sacrifice?

I have heard about people fasting all kinds of things. I wonder how many of them are really sacrificing anything. I’m not trying to condemn people or judge their sacrifice, but it seems to me that there is something to what we sacrifice. Look back at the story of Cain and Able if you don’t believe me. Cain made a sacrifice that wasn’t acceptable and God made it clear that He wouldn’t take a second rate sacrifice.

When it comes to fasting, the Bible seems to assume food, but I think that is because the people didn’t tend to have available the things to give up that we do. I don’t think that the problem is really what we sacrifice but how we do it. If I sacrifice music it wouldn’t be as big of a deal verses if my sister made the same sacrifice. I listen to music while I’m working but if I don’t have the background noise I’m fine. I hardly ever listen to music other than while I’m working. My sister, on the other hand, loves music. She owns hundreds of CDs plus her MP3 collection and she plays the piano daily. It would be a huge sacrifice for her to give up music for a few days or weeks.

I think we often pick a second place sacrifice. I’ll give up a meal instead of all me meals. I’ll give up sodas instead of the computer. I hope you get the picture. I give up important things but not the most important things. I talk to a lot of people and know I’m not alone in this. I want to give up something big but chicken out and pick something that sounds big. Not so other people can think, “Wow, look what NtG is giving up for God.” I don’t even tell people what I’m giving up most of the time. I want something that sounds big to me without actually being so big that I’m afraid it is too big.

Even know I feel challenged to sacrifice something huge but I’m afraid to really do it. What about you? Have you ever given up something that was really big not just pretend big? Do you ever feel like some things should be sacrificed but instead give second place? Am I just a big pansy?