(a 3 minute read) Having a best friend in your younger years is such a great blessing. I had one growing up and for that I am so very thankful. We were in our young teen years when we met. By no measure I can say I had a rough childhood. In fact I must say that I grew up in a loving home surrounded by great role models. I would consider myself at almost 54 a person that cares about others. For that, I have my parents and all the role models I encountered in my life to be thankful for. In spite of all that, I can share without going in details that many a time if I did not have my best friend’s house to escape to, and I am definitely being melodramatic here, I could have done something bad. If for that alone, I am ever so grateful to you my friend and of course to your mom, as she had that house always open for me 🙂

You see, my best buddy lost his dad at almost 7 years old. He died in a war.

Now my best buddy is a man of strong will. He loved and continues to love sports and was very involved in many activities. Of course he would get into all sorts of trouble, and many a time I would be right there with him. After one of such incidents, instead of my best friend taken to the principal’s office, here we are sitting in a classroom of about 30 students and in walks the assistant principal. He asks my best friend to stand up. This is our junior year of high school.  The assistant principal, in public, says, “If your father, a man died a ‘shaheed’ (you can think ‘martyr’ as an equivalent) would he, a shaheed, be proud of your actions?” This assault, as I would describe it, carried on for a few minutes. I do not think I ever have seen my best friend cry. I did see tears that day, but they were not tears of remorse or guilt, rather tears of anger, fury and rage. More like, “how dare you use my father’s sacrifice, martyrdom, witness for an occasion as such.”  I felt rage and fury, nothing compared to his of course, for mine was more like, “how dare you make my best friend, the strong willed, the resilient and tough best friend, how dare you ‘crush him’ like that.”

The slight but enormous difference is that ‘sacrifice’ is to give of oneself, while ‘shaheed’ (witness) is to point to someone else. The sacrifice and the witness are both part of the same act, the one and same act. We, as people, can choose to place emphasis on one or the other.

I believe, and I could be wrong, that for thousands of years we, the world, have emphasized the Death and the Sacrifice way way way more than the Witness of the Lordship of the Resurrection. With Resurrection Sunday approaching, I implore our leaders to emphasize and stress the resurrection for it is the LIGHT and it is the WAY. And for the rest of the year and years to come, emphasize the witnessing of what Jesus did rather than on the sacrifice. For just like my best friend, as His sons and daughters, it may infuriate us to have this act of LOVE be used to crush those around us for submission. Let us instead, use this act of LOVE to further the understanding and the witnessing of the spreading of the good news; the beauty and the splendor of the act of witnessing of the Resurrection as to who He is. God in person. For what is greater? To point to someone else and who They are? Or to point to oneself and to what one gains from that sacrifice?