Crosses in all Shapes and Sizes

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 
--Jesus

What does following Christ mean to you?

Are you. . . 

• Taking care of a loved one with physical or mental needs?  Tying yourself to that person 24/7?  Forgoing work, fun, and sleep in order to help them?
  

God sees your extravagant sacrifice.

• Losing a job because you won't comply with a command to be unethical?  Holding on to your integrity in a gritty, sin-blackened world?  Being a light in a dark place?  
  

God sees your extravagant sacrifice.

• Leaving family and friends and comforts to go to a foreign country where you will misunderstand and be misunderstood; where you will have to adjust your cultural values, your tastes, your body temperature, even perhaps your clothing?  Reincarnating yourself, so to speak, for the Gospel's sake?  
  

God sees your extravagant sacrifice.

• Facing a deadly and invasive disease without bitterness?  Being willing to offer your frail body for use by the Savior, to model Christ-like joy in front of friends, family, and the medical community even in painful and humiliating circumstances? 

God sees your extravagant sacrifice.

You can't follow Christ without taking up your cross.  And crosses come in all shapes and sizes.

Following Christ is a singularly personalized process.  Sometimes He beckons you to leave your circumstances in order to follow Him (Matthew the tax collector).  Sometimes He leaves you smack-dab in the middle of your circumstances and calls you to follow Him within your own milieu  (Zacchaeus the tax collector).

Always, always, He sees your faith, your joy, your willingness to be used as a picture of Christ on the walls of other people's lives. 

He smiles.  

He approves.

He rejoices over you with singing.

Angels watch in amazement that such a sinner can be so transformed by Christ's power.

Satan slinks away in shame.

Epic, spiritual wars are raging in the air around you.  Unseen forces are at work in your life.  You have decisions to make and those difficult choices will determine which spiritual entity will win that particular battle.

Prepare yourself to follow Christ into places aromatic with sacrifice and abundant with suffering.  It is there that you will find Him.  It is there that you will come to know Him. 

"That I may know Him. . . and the fellowship of his sufferings."

Fellowship is so much sweeter in the context of follow-ship.