I've decided to drop down to one blog a month (at least for now), because of a few reasons. The first is that I would rather have one really impactful blog than two that I feel obligated to do. The second is because I simply cannot keep up with two a month at the moment, with college and other such commitments. But enough about that.
So without further ado, let's talk about God, shall we?
I've been really mulling over a verse for a while. A simple statement from the one and only Jesus Christ. It changed my outlook on my walk God. In a lot of ways. Here we go:
"Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
-Mark 8:34
What questions come to mind as you think about this verse? For me, I think about what it means to deny yourself. What "Carrying your cross daily" looks like practically. And I've come to a few conclusions regarding this verse. I'd like to share those conclusions.
A life that denies self and carries crosses is a life surrendered to God. Simply put, it's 100% dependence, faithfulness, and acknowledgement of God's overwhelming presence in your life. But practically, it's a work that God does in your heart. He works to change your heart first, and then attitude will come naturally. He works to change you from the inside out. So from this, I don't actually think your life looks differently. But it is lived with God differently. It's daily dependence, from the smallest needs to the biggest concerns. Everything is presented to God, and nothing is withheld because you don't want God to have that part of your life.
Now the second part to this is that of the fact that you are going to have to do some heavy lifting here; literally. The verse states "You must deny yourself and carry your cross to follow me." Jesus can't carry your cross for you. Not at first, anyways. In fact, Jesus had his cross carried for him. But where does that change?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
-Matthew 11:28-30
The reason I say "At least at first" is because God cannot take your burdens if you're not willing to bring them to him in the first place. There is that element of willingness that must come with surrender. It's not surrender if it's only partial. It's everything or it's nothing. But once you get there, the load becomes lighter. That's something I've been learning. But it's also recognizing that it's God who does this process. Not you. For the longest time I use to think "Alright, I know everything I need to do. Now I can take it from here." The problem with that is that the cross is a symbol of love and grace. To say 'me' is to excuse the love and grace. It's not "me and then grace"; It's only grace, because of love. This is much more a lifestyle than a practice. Something ingrained in us to be lived out.
Every day.
Yes, I understand this might be a bit confusing. What I mean by all of this so far is that you should at no point in time think that you are the one in control of carrying your cross. Yes, you still have to carry it, because we're given that responsibility. But God is the one guiding your steps, walking beside you, and telling you where to go. Because odds are, when you have a giant cross on your back, you're not going to be able to stare at anything other than the ground. Walk beside God, not ahead of him. Because the second we get complacent is the second we'll run ahead of him and fall. Which is when God comes along and picks us back up on our feet. And we keep walking beside him again... and again... and again...
But we can eventually bring that burden to him, and he can make it light.
In the end, it's up to you who to follow. Do you follow yourself and your own desires and wants, or do you follow Christ? Because like I said, It's all or nothing. You cannot serve both light and dark. In other words, you can't claim to be a Christian and yet still hold on to an element of sin in your life. Even if it's something as simple as compulsive lying. It's gotta go.
So how does one give up everything in pursuit of Christ?
The answer is this:
I don't know.
Why?
It looks different for each person, so I can't really say for sure, because the reality is, it might come through constant prayer for one person and constant praise and worship for another. It might come through faithfully serving and keeping thoughts fixed on him. There's a number of things that could "work" for one person. But the great thing about not knowing is that the only way to find out is to branch out and try all these things. Step out of our comfort zones for the sake of Christ. Live every day to serve him and to glorify him. And part of that means taking up our cross, and following him faithfully. But not just faithfully.
Daily.
