Lift Up Your Cross

We all have our crosses to bear. Always, it seems to us, our cross is far heavier than everyone else's. Sometimes it is. As much as we might like to just drop our cross and walk away, we don't have that option. If the cross isn't optional, we at least have the choice of how we carry it. We can choose to either lift our cross up and carry it with a straight back and a determined heart, or we can choose to drag it across the ground, our back stooped and our heart full of resentment and self-pity. It is perfectly understandable to believe ourselves incapable of lifting up our heavy, heavy cross for any length of time. We may assume that if we must bear our cross, the least we can do is make it easier on ourselves by dragging it along. But that is where we are wrong. Dragging it is not easier. When we drag our cross, it will get caught in cracks in the pavement, get stuck in the mud and the grime, and jar out of our hands when it bumps over a flagstone. And invariably when we drop it, of course it lands on our foot just to add insult to injury. We may believe that if we are barely making any progress by dragging it, there is no way that we are strong enough to lift the cross up onto our shoulders. But we are wrong. We are stronger than we know and God doesn't give us a cross that is too heavy for us. And when we lift it all the way up, that gives Christ room to come up beside us and shoulder some of the weight as well. If carry a cross we must, is it not better to carry it well, carry it willingly, and carry it with a sense of purpose and dignity and determination? I know that when we choose to lift up our cross rather than drag it along begrudgingly and half-heartedly, we will wake up and find that we are strong and can do hard things worth doing.