What is your Cross?
Well, again I haven't written in awhile. It seems the muse doesn't hit me often and when it does it's in the middle of the night. So tonight I woke to write my thoughts. Maybe this will lead me to write more frequently!
As I lay in bed with the heat of the day dissipating to the thunder, lightening and quick bursts of rain, a thought kept running through my head. What is the Cross that I bear?
Jesus commands us to "Take up your Cross and follow Him." Have I done that? Have you done that? How do you know that the Cross you've picked up is the one He wants you to bear and not just one that you think you should be bearing? Does it have to be a big Cross or something so horrible that the whole world can see it. Or is the Cross a small one seen only by you and Him, but still such a hard, physical and/or mental burden that it consumes your life? Have you or I picked up a Cross that makes us look good because we are shouldering it when in fact there is another one waiting for us that isn't so attractive a burden. Do we show the world our Crosses or keep them close where they are hidden from family and friends? Do we need to let others see our Crosses?
What brought these thoughts on tonight? Certainly I've thought them before, especially during Lent and Easter when Christ took up His Cross for all mankind. But the trigger this evening was a concert I took 2 of my daughters to see. A young man, Jimmy Wayne, singer/songwriter and survivor of a child's lifetime of abuse. This man has certainly had difficult Crosses to bear in his young life. And his witness to God's love is that he is able to write and sing about those crosses and in doing so touch other lives. As I listened to his beautiful music, I wondered if he sings about all of them or does he hold others closer to his heart, waiting for a time, a person or reason to share them with us.
My daughters and I loved our time together, a time that as they grow older isn't always available. Aferwards, sharing a few moments with this young man and the band members and tour people travelling with him, I was touched by the joy in their eyes. His songs are sad but through that sadness he shows us the way to end the sadness and keep our eyes on Jesus. Not many people, poets, authors, songwriters, etc. are able to accomplish so much in such a short span of time. You leave feeling a little sad for the Crosses he bore as a child and the scars that he will always carry but at the same time hopeful that he made it and we can make it and perhaps give hope to someone we meet along our path.
I look at people around me and I occasionally see that they are bearing a Cross that for most of us would be too much to carry. Yet, these people carry it with a kind of bittersweet happiness.
Yes, it's a burden! But Christ said that He would not give us more than we can bear. And I believe Him and in Him.
Trust in Jesus to help you carry whatever your Cross may be. Maybe it is something that you hold close to your heart to share only with Him or maybe it's a such a burden that by proclaiming it from the rooftops others will come to know God's love. I know that God will not let us fall if we trust in His everlasting love.
God bless all of you and peace be with you and our whole world!
As I lay in bed with the heat of the day dissipating to the thunder, lightening and quick bursts of rain, a thought kept running through my head. What is the Cross that I bear?
Jesus commands us to "Take up your Cross and follow Him." Have I done that? Have you done that? How do you know that the Cross you've picked up is the one He wants you to bear and not just one that you think you should be bearing? Does it have to be a big Cross or something so horrible that the whole world can see it. Or is the Cross a small one seen only by you and Him, but still such a hard, physical and/or mental burden that it consumes your life? Have you or I picked up a Cross that makes us look good because we are shouldering it when in fact there is another one waiting for us that isn't so attractive a burden. Do we show the world our Crosses or keep them close where they are hidden from family and friends? Do we need to let others see our Crosses?
What brought these thoughts on tonight? Certainly I've thought them before, especially during Lent and Easter when Christ took up His Cross for all mankind. But the trigger this evening was a concert I took 2 of my daughters to see. A young man, Jimmy Wayne, singer/songwriter and survivor of a child's lifetime of abuse. This man has certainly had difficult Crosses to bear in his young life. And his witness to God's love is that he is able to write and sing about those crosses and in doing so touch other lives. As I listened to his beautiful music, I wondered if he sings about all of them or does he hold others closer to his heart, waiting for a time, a person or reason to share them with us.
My daughters and I loved our time together, a time that as they grow older isn't always available. Aferwards, sharing a few moments with this young man and the band members and tour people travelling with him, I was touched by the joy in their eyes. His songs are sad but through that sadness he shows us the way to end the sadness and keep our eyes on Jesus. Not many people, poets, authors, songwriters, etc. are able to accomplish so much in such a short span of time. You leave feeling a little sad for the Crosses he bore as a child and the scars that he will always carry but at the same time hopeful that he made it and we can make it and perhaps give hope to someone we meet along our path.
I look at people around me and I occasionally see that they are bearing a Cross that for most of us would be too much to carry. Yet, these people carry it with a kind of bittersweet happiness.
Yes, it's a burden! But Christ said that He would not give us more than we can bear. And I believe Him and in Him.
Trust in Jesus to help you carry whatever your Cross may be. Maybe it is something that you hold close to your heart to share only with Him or maybe it's a such a burden that by proclaiming it from the rooftops others will come to know God's love. I know that God will not let us fall if we trust in His everlasting love.
God bless all of you and peace be with you and our whole world!
posted by Kitty at 3:16 AM
2 Comments:
You are in my thoughts.
x
I really think that we don't get to pick our own Crosses.
Sometimes we do make them for ourselves, and sometimes the Lord then says, "Well, you made it, now deal with it." But more often then not, I think that we are given them to deal with whether we like them or not...
...and they are our path to Heaven.
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