Optimist Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. This was Jesus telling his disciples what they would have to do to follow him.
Anything we want to do in our lifetime usually has a cost attached to it; not necessarily a monetary cost but we usually have to give up something in order to do what is required. Just like when we go to church for example, we have to give up being comfortable in our homes to go sit in a pew to worship on Sunday mornings. That is not much of a sacrifice for us, but just makes us stop and think about how much that matters to Jesus that we move out of our comfort zone sometimes to follow Him.
Someone once said,” Jesus had enough love to suffer for me, that I might have enough faith to suffer with Him”. He is our leader, we must follow Him no matter how tough it make it and no matter what cross we have to bear. The payoff will be worth it! I once read that if we follow Jesus, the benefits will be out of this world! Cute statement but literally true!!
Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic, has written many books, has spoken at many conventions and actually paints pictures with a paintbrush in her mouth, said, “ People think my cross is this wheelchair, but it’s not. It’s how I look at this wheelchair that’s my cross”. She has been an inspiration to many!! That statement makes sense as we think about what we have to bear in this life and makes us realize that it is how we face difficulties and what our attitude is toward those tough times.
Whenever a person follows God, there will always be things go wrong, there will always be somebody to oppose him or her. Anyway you look at it, when you follow Jesus, you will have opposition because Satan is very busy in this crazy world we live in.
If you read the book of Mark, Jesus talks about what the Son of Man will go through and that He will suffer many things. He already knew that she was going to die. It was His Father’s plan.
As we follow Jesus, we are betting everything we have on the fact that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave so we could have eternal life.
We need to place our bet on Christ! The disciples did after Jesus taught them so much.
This journey through Lent gives us time to think about all Jesus did for us as He traveled that road to Calvary.
Cross bearing is an act of love that we freely choose. It is a task that we undertake, a price that we pay, out of our love for Jesus. For Jesus, it meant going to across to die because He loved us so much.
