Today I pass along a part of a message written by George H Morrison on the topic of carrying your cross. I hope that you will find it as insightful and thought provoking as I did:
The third implication of our text is that cross-bearing must be a willing thing. “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross.” Probably our Lord, visiting Jerusalem, had seen a criminal led to execution. He had seen the legionary take the cross and lay it on the shoulders of the criminal. And the man had fought and struggled like a beast, in his loathing of that last indignity—and yet for all his hate he had to bear it. Our Lord never could forget that. It would haunt His memory to the end—these frenzied and unavailing struggles against an empire that was irresistible. Did He, I wonder, recall that horrid scene when He forbade His follower to struggle so? Let him take up his cross, I had a friend, a sweet and saintly man, whose little girl was dying. She was an only child, much loved, and his heart was very bitter and rebellious. Then he turned to his wife and said: “Wife, we must not let God take our child. We must give her.” So kneeling down beside the bed together, they gave up their baby—and their wills. My dear reader, I do not know your cross, I only know for certain that you have one. And I know, too, that the kind of way you bear it will make all the difference to you. Your cross may harden you; it may embitter you; it may drive you out into a land of salt. Your cross may bring you to the arms of Christ. Rebel against it, you have still to carry it. Rebel against it, and you augment its weight. Rebel against it, and the birds cease singing. All the music of life’s harp is jangled. But take it up because the Master bids you, incorporate it in God’s plan for you, and it blossoms like the rod of Aaron.
The last implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a daily thing. “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily.” There lies the heroism of cross-bearing. It is not a gallant deed of golden mornings. You have to do it, cheerfully and bravely, every dull morning of the week. Some disciplines are quite occasional. They reach us in selected circumstances. Cross-bearing is continuous. It is the heroism of the dull common hour. Thank God, there is something else which is continuous, and that is the sufficient grace of Him, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, and who will never leave us nor forsake us. “If any man will come after me, let him …. take up his cross daily.”
Blessings
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