After twenty years heavily involved in volunteerism, I have come to believe that there is a meaningful difference between serving and sacrificing - and that recognizing it is the key to giving that lasts.
Sacrifice, in the way we usually mean it, has an edge of depletion to it. It gives from a sense of duty or guilt, keeps score, and eventually burns out. Service is something else. It gives from abundance rather than obligation, and it tends to return to the giver as much as it costs - in meaning, in connection, in the plain satisfaction of being useful.
The distinction is not about giving less. It is about giving in a way you can sustain for a lifetime. The world needs a great deal of help, and the people best positioned to provide it are the ones who have learned to serve without emptying themselves in the process.
Originally published in View AZ Highlife Magazine, June / July 2007.