I watched a home movie, ‘Family and the Law’ on Nosa Rex TV. It portrayed how a transformative result was achieved through the strategy of sacrifice after all strategies had failed.
In the movie, Nosa’s (Officer Henry) two siblings were living reckless lives which caused the family lots of disgrace, humiliation, and police cases. At a point, Nosa ( being a police officer on the verge of losing his job for shielding his brother who was a notorious gang leader) knew he had just two options left to secure his peace and job; either to save his brother from police net and lose his job or to leave his brother to face the wrath of law and lose his hypertensive Mum who was sick and pleading that he gets his brother released.
At last, he decided to use the strategy of sacrifice, with the help of two of his colleagues. He faked a dismissal at work after taking lots of risks that aided his brother’s escape from the police net.
This strategy worked like magic when other strategies ( punishment,
prayer, counselling, therapy etc) failed. Acting with so much pain of losing a job that’s the only source of income for the family, and threatening to ki ll himself, his siblings instantly turned a new leaf. They begged his forgiveness, became all that he wanted them to be and the family’s peace and joy got restored.
Great movie!
And I asked myself, why must they wait till he faked losing his job to change?
Why did they allow him to go that far to appeal their repentance and remorse?
Why do people trivialise simple solutions and only heed the impulse of drastic measures?
The answer lies in the power of sacrifice!
Apart from the rite of sacrifice that involves shedding blo od which we are familiar with, any bargain that costs one a job, a home, a relationship, or any valuables whatsoever, is a sacrifice and sacrifice works wonders in achieving a desirable outcome.
To sacrifice is to give up a treasure, usually in exchange for greater value. Sacrifice creates a tactical position of advantage and weakens the opposition. Just like in the game of chess where sacrifice is used to gain an advantage over the opponent, sacrifice conveys a plan of strategic decision to achieve distinctive results. Empirically, there’s an inevitable link between sacrifice and favourable outcomes.
The concept of sacrifice has been of profound significance to individuals and social groups, be it religious, traditional, cultural, material and so on. The efficacy of any sacrifice is the ability to either purify, atone, bring peace, invoke goodness, power, value, etc. In all, sacrifice is a catalyst for transformation and positive outcomes.
Personally, I have made sacrifices that yielded desired results. I’m sure you can relate as well. Or are there better options you went for other than sacrificing?
Much as sacrifice seems the ultimate price and the greatest strategy to achieve quicker results, it is advisable that we weigh and perhaps yield to other strategies first because the weight and price of sacrifice is usually too heavy to bear.
✍️ Amara Ann Unachukwu
