I didn’t actually carry a cross that big on my shoulder. Some people have a cross-themed necklace, but not me. It’s mostly my burdens; the misfortune of a guy who once dreamed big.
Indeed, I need someone to help me at times. Yet I couldn’t find it, although I tried to find peace and motivation through people and what is happening around me.
My journey of life takes a detour. I can’t explain more, nor would I expose myself to anyone at all, my burden. Not one is trustworthy. No one really understands our state of mind.
Cross, here is, and as I used it, is the biblical terminology of the burden of our original sin. Moreover, it is the burden accumulated in our lives by any means through the little decisions that didn’t seem to matter at the time.
Carrying Cross:
Becoming a Christian is believing in the power of God displayed on the cross. It is true, the cross is the manifestation of God’s love who paid, in full, the cost of the impending death because of our sin.
Many mistook the power of the cross as liberty – being set free from the clutches of worldly desires. It is not!
The cross did and will have power to deliver us from sin, but we have to surrender to the will of God to follow the one who gave his life in sacrifice for our sins. And, it isn’t easy at times – thus many people give up midway.
I have been through it – if they could see me being oppressed, looked down upon, and not considered worthy to have a word within my silence, with a deep pain becomes my corner. No love in this world is enough to understand me. I did not expect it anymore. With a cross, I’m just a burden to them.
If I could simply give up on my children, I already would do it. Even now, I’m not sure if I’d get the custody of them so that I may look after them. My poor health and my poor reasoning resulting in poor decisions are like a cross to me.
Carry your Cross:
Carry your cross and follow me. Although free from the clutches of sin, Jesus reminded us to carry our own cross. It’s just that he will help us throughout.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23
To take up our cross daily to become his disciple isn’t that smooth. If there is no freedom, blessings, and all that we have desired as the heir apparent of God, it looks empty for now.
It is focusing on discipleship as a believer in the power of God and the cross. In Matthew 10:38, Jesus further emphasized, whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
Bear your own cross:
As much as the power of the cross is unfathomable, each one of us has our own cross or burden to carry with us. Life is always under trial. Those who are deemed fit will enter the Kingdom of God, which Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us.
Jesus carried his own cross to Calvary’s Mount; he knows the burden of it all. When he carries the cross, it means total surrender to the will of God, trusting His Father that his mission will accomplish its purpose on the third day when he rose from the dead.
Just as Jesus carried the cross along a route known as the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Grief) – a path that runs through the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, we also went through the street many times in our lives.
Cross for the disciple:
Many churches preach about the blessings of God, depicting God as always good, which I agree with. Yet many believers were crippled by the real-time suffering they had endured throughout their lifetime.
I have to tolerate a chronic neurological condition, but when people questioned my faith level because I have not been healed, it does not feel very good. Some of the goodness of God is clearer to the suffering person.
Should there be no suffering right after believing and following him, there still is suffering, as we are living in this world where pain and suffering have not yet been lifted. There is a place where there are no more tears, death, or sorrow. Rev. 21:4
In conclusion, let us appreciate the suffering of Jesus in our stead, praise his name, and wait patiently in his time. Life is not all about prosperity. True discipleship requires carrying our cross to know more of the peace and comfort by the Spirit. Carrying cross does not imply God is not with us.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
