"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." I always wonder why bearing the cross has to go along with loving God. So the question is, are you worthy of Christ? The answer to that question depends on how well you follow Christ carrying your cross. In the lives of each of us, there is a cross. The cross can be caused by somebody else, or we may bring a cross on ourselves due to our choices, or sometimes the cross is neither the fault of others nor ourselves. At first, we may deny that we have across. Perhaps we do not want to face the pain of the cross, so we pretend that everything is fine; we have no cross. But one of the mysteries of life is that a grace awaits us if we carry our cross just as resurrection awaited Jesus after he died. If we deny our cross, we are losing out on the grace God has planned to give us.
On September 19th, 1985, a devastating earthquake struck Mexico City. It killed several thousand people and caused terrible damage. Those who survived dug through the rubble to rescue as many as possible who were trapped beneath the masonry. One man, Marcos, nicknamed "The Flea" because he was so small, less than 5 feet, was able to crawl through tiny openings on the surface and go into cavities in the rubble to rescue people. He helped save 27 people. He had been nicknamed "The Flea" because of his small stature, which must have been hurtful for him, but what was originally painful turned out to be a blessing during the earthquake. It became such a blessing that he was featured in a documentary. Can you see the similarity between Marcos and Zacchaeus? Marcos reminds us that what counts is quality and not quantity. A grace accompanies every cross. Jesus rose from the dead because he carried his cross.
Do you remember the cartoon of the ant carrying the contact lens I shared with and the caption in it, "Lord, I don't know why you want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what you want me to do, I'll carry it for you." sometimes the cross we carry is beyond our understanding, it's full weight may crush us, but do not give up. I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it, and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will." God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
I would like to share with you this poem I found: Don't Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is strange with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a failure comes about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit. Edgar A. Guest