Cross

if you look up the definition of cross in the dictionary (for my generation wikipedia. ha) you will find the following result: "it is the most common symbol of Christianity, intended to represent the death of Jesus when he was crucified on the True Cross and his resurrection in the New Testament."

as a Christian i have to shake my head at this definition. really? that's all you have for us wiki?

because for me - the cross embodies so so so so much more. (i think you get the point).

i think people truly underestimate what it means when they take up the cross. people blindly carry it with them every day. i admit - i'm one of those people. i wear it around my neck daily and most times its so natural to have it hanging there i forget its even there. when in all reality i should be feeling the heavy weight laying on my chest of what it means to really carry the

cross.

take a step back in time - to when the early Christians lived and consider for a moment what it meant to "carry the cross" for these people.

for them - it literally meant they were carrying the cross that they were going to die on. they were carrying the cross that they knew would in the end be the one in which they would be crucified upon.

do you have that kind of strength? that kind of commitment? to the Lord?

can you take up the cross in the same way Jesus did knowing that you may and most likely will die because of it?

see - i think most people know the story of the crucifixion of Jesus but they don't understand that the same goes for them when they follow Jesus. okay, honestly not many of us (hopefully none of us) are going to be truly crucified BUT we are going to suffer for our choice in following God.

this is the part of Christianity that many of us conveniently look over or forget. but we cannot forget this. because if we do we're left crying out to God, "What are you doing!? Why me!?"

but (yes another but) who are we, mere mortals, to question God? we can't. we weren't there to lay the foundations of this earth. we weren't there to create man from dust. we weren't there to set the sun in sky and plants the trees in the ground.

as Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God's throne."

Jesus did it and if we truly love him we can try to do it ourselves.

there's a man who walks around my town and every so often he will carry this huge cross around with him. taller than him, probably weighing more than him as well because it's certainly not made from styrofoam. when asked why he does this his response was that it was reminder to him for the sins that Jesus carried for us. the sins he erased and that God forgave when Jesus gave himself upon the cross.

what a way to keep in his heart and mind what the cross really means.

i'm not suggesting you all go out and by an 8-foot tall cross and carry it around with you once a week but i am saying it is important to keep the idea of what our cross means to us close to your heart.

an idea i do have though, and which i intend to implement as soon as i get back to bible study at school is this: whether singularly or with others, buy or create a cross of any kind, any size (depending on how many people will participate). then with that cross take it and i want you to put your sins on that cross. in whatever way you may choose (write them, paint them, carve them into). keep that cross somewhere prominent so that you can always remember that your sins are already attested for and that the cross you carry will be nowhere near as heavy as the one that Jesus carried for us.

in Third Days' song "Carry My Cross" we find the motto for which we should take when it comes to the cross that Jesus has handed us:

"So I’ll carry my cross
And I’ll carry the shame
To the end of the road
Through the struggle and pain
And I’ll do it for love
No, it won’t be in vain
Yes, I’ll carry my cross
And I’ll carry the shame"

Weakness

sometimes it takes reaching our breaking point for us to put our full faith in God. because in our weakness God prevails the strongest. it is at this point that he works his best "magic." he even says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

the worship band 1000 generations grasps this in their appropriately entitled song "Only in Weakness" with their lyrics which sing out to God, "It's only in weakness can You be strong."

if i really think about it - and i'm sure if you really think about it as well, the times when you turn to God most are when things are going terribly. maybe sometimes we have to hit a low or our breaking point for God to get our attention.

that's a pretty accepting God.

i don't know of very many people who would stick around for people who only turned to them in bad times and most times forgot them during the good ones.

and some people might be a little aggravated, irritated and just fed up with the bad stuff that God allows to happen in order to get our attention. my favorite book of the bible is Ecclesiastes becuse it shows us why God let's bad things happen (that may not be your theory on why bad things happen but it's mine) and it shows us that in this world nothing is as good as what life with Him will bring in the next. it's still hard to take on a life full of ups and downs though. but what we have to remember is the promise the Lord makes us in Romans 8:18, "What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will give us later."

and of course this isn't really that comforting when things seems to be falling apart around us. but it's the honest-to-god truth (no pun intended).

it's at these times when we must have what i would call a sort of blind faith in God. we must take a walk into what we see as darkness and trust that He will guide us through to our lighted future. because for Him the path is bright as it can get and clear as day.

even in the worst of times we should take note that God is never separated from us - as it says in Romans 8:35,38, "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away."

for a man like Paul to say this it is a true testament to God's love. i am by no means judging you and the situations you have faced in your life but for most of us we've never come close to facing the things in life that Paul had. and look at how he still praises God! still believes! and still feels close to God!

and honestly we should be glad to have God by our side in times of trouble. if you look at it - he has suffered more than any of us and yet he still stands to suffer alongside us.

He has felt that grief that overcomes you when someone dies.

He has felt rejection from the people in this world who push him aside.

He has felt heartbreak at loving someone to the ends of the earth and having them turn their back on you.

but most importantly...

He knows how to lay aside the urge to get even and instead offer forgiveness.

i would like to end this note with some prayer requests because i think some of the requests on my list are bigger than my prayers alone.

~ the flooding that has devastated the area, may the damage be fixed and may the families be able to handle this.

~ the hearts of those that have been broken recently, that they may heal and find strength elsewhere

~ the sick - in heart, mind and body, that they may heal and find peace in God

~ the lonely, may they find comfort and companionship in fellow Christians and God himself.

Father

yesterday i got back from the St. Jude Collegiate Leadership Seminar in Memphis, Tennessee where i attended in order to learn more about the hospital, it's patients, their families, the doctors, researchers, and other people who work to fight childhood cancer, along with ways to improve the organization Up 'til Dawn for which I was representing.

if you want to see a place which is truly doing the work of God, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is that place. though, in fact, it is not religiously affiliated.

if you don't know St. Jude treats children suffering from childhood cancer not dependent on their race, creed, or ability to pay. the hospital takes care of all fees from the treatment itself to the housing of the family while their child is being treated.

it's a remarkable place.

there are so many amazing stories that i could tell of my trip there but instead i just have one that stuck out the most to me. and which i think very easily applies to the Christian lifestyle.

a father of little girl named Mia, who was diagnosed with a cancer by a very big name and for which i couldn't even begin to spell, at the age of 9 was posed with the question: where do you get your strength?

he proceeded to tell of us a story that went something like this:

"we were sitting on the couch one day just watching tv and i turned to her and asked her 'are you ever scared?' and she looked at me and said 'no.' well i wasn't really expecting that so i asked her, 'why not?' and she said to me, 'cuz you told me everything would be all right.' i knew from then on that i had to do it for her."

what an immense faith this 9 year old girl had in her father.

what if we had such a great faith in our Father in Heaven in the face of our trials as little Mia did with her father?

and she's not the only child who is facing these trials and having great faith. no, all these children aren't set firmly in the faith of God but some do and some just have an unwavering faith in

something else - whether it be the doctors, their parents, another god, or just their own strength.

they are strong children. but they're not always strong. sometimes they cry, sometimes they question, sometimes

they curse the world that they've been sent to live in. but the truly faithful never stop believing in those people who

they know are there to save them.

in the same way, we as Christians should never stop believing in the Lord and what he has promised us. He never

promised it would be easy and never promised we would not face trials and tribulations. so yes we may cry out, we

may question, and we may curse this world that we've been sent to live in but we can never stop believing in Him.

there are many instances of this faith in face of trials in the Bible. Paul, Job, the writer in Ecclesiastes, and even

Jesus himself when he implores to the Lord in Matthew 27:46, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

a true test in our faith is that we still believe even when God is not outwardly good to us in this life. because it is important to remember that he has promised us greater rewards in the next life, the true life. and he has promised that he will be with us always in Matthew 28:20, "Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

in the end - the bad that happens in this life will be nothing compared to the promise we have in the next life. we have this promise in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."

i can't ever get those children of St. Jude and their families off my mind and heart. i pray for them, for the researchers, doctors, and the many contributors that make the hospital capable of doing what it does each and every day. not many hospitals can do what St. Jude does - providing free care that costs them approximately $1.4 million a day and raising survival rates of cancers such as ALL from 4% to 94%. it's an amazing place and i pray that founder Danny Thomas' dream to one day throw the key into the river because there is no more need for the hospital will someday come true.

save those kids!