I made the following statements yesterday in a conversation with my wife. "When in a relationship with another person you have to realize that your actions affect them. When looking at a choice of actions you then have to ask yourself 'Which action requires me to sacrifice and which allows me to be selfish'"

In a round about way all I was saying was Luke 9:23

Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Almost every interaction in life with others requires the choice to be selfish or to sacrifice. For example, at work I have flex hours which means I can show up at some strange hour in the morning and leave at some strange hour sometime in the afternoon or evening. If I wanted to sleep in every morning, I could get to work at 10am and it wouldn't be a problem. However, this snowballs quickly when I realize that I have to miss dinner in order to fit the appropriate amount of work in during the day. Also, our customers get to work between 7 and 8 am. It is in their best interest that I be at work during a time frame conducive to them contacting me. Do I like getting up? Not really. I am still a teenager in there somewhere. I would sleep til noon if I wanted to be utterly selfish about it. Do I like fighting through traffic with the rest of the working world? Not really. Driving to work at 5am or 10am is much better because there is virtually no traffic. Do I like, for all practical purposes, giving up my flex-hours benefit? No but I am thankful I have the option when my family really needs me. The simple sacrifice of being where people expect me, when they expect me makes the lives of all of my co-workers and clients that much easier. The right choice to make is sacrifice even if the sacrifice doesn't seem all that big.

Christ asks us to take the radical step of following Him and that means down the path of His Passion as well. Take up your cross and follow Him, even in the little things.