Sometimes I struggle with christendom… A few days ago I was driving with my girls and on the radio the announcer shared that she often found herself comfortable with the cross. I had to shake my head and wonder on that one.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
1 Corinthians 1:17
You see to me, to become comfortable with the cross is to become comfortable with sin. To become comfortable with the cross is to become complacent with your own life. I am reminded daily that I have far from arrived… and with every reminder I find myself clinging to the cross… not propped up against. It’s not my comfort zone, it’s my cling zone.
I see the cross all around me.
I see the cross when I hear people use His name in vain.
I see the cross when I hear a parent allow a child to treat them with disrespect and watch parents cave to the whims of their kids.
I see the cross when I see someone dirty and disheveled standing on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign.
I see the cross when I hear the latest political rants and schemes of particular interest groups as they fight for power, control, and money with and for votes.
I see the cross when I see the latest meth busts scroll across my newsfeed and there before me are the eyes of desperation drowning in their own darkness.
I see the cross when the famous professing christian boasts in self-esteem and positive thinking rather than the cross.
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14
I see the cross when I drive over the causeway on warm Sunday mornings and see boat after boat on the river or drive by the softball fields to see them full.
I see the cross when I notice people scrolling through their phones and texting and giggling during the proclamation of the Scriptures.
For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping,that they are enemies of the cross of Christ
Philippians 3:18
I see the cross when I pass that billboard that advertises filth and degradation and preys on lonely tired minds and unsettled souls in order to fatten a wallet by emptying those of others.
I see the cross in every marriage that falls apart.
I see the cross in every death.
I see the cross everywhere.
I see the cross in every birth of new life.
I see the cross in every marriage where two people come together to be united as one in covenant standing there before God and family and friends.
I see the cross in every awaken and freed soul who discovers that the only way loneliness is ever truly defeated is by the grace of God and the indwelling of His ever present Holy Spirit and for the first time in a long time is washed clean by the water of the Word and takes a deep breath and inhales the beauty of the purity of devotion to Christ.
I see the cross in the mesmerized face of a child or the lightbulb filled eyes of a believer who sits before the teaching of the Word of God and has a moment when something that has been a mystery for them all their life is revealed to them by God Himself.
I see the cross in the frazzled faces of every young parent who has just fought Satan himself to get the baby, the toddler, and the teenager out of bed, dressed, and ready for church.
I see the cross in the eyes of every former addict that once held darkness and despair but now glows with the Light filled new Life of Christ… renewed, strong, ready to finally face themselves and whatever demons they need to fight that once held them captive in the bondage of addiction.
I see the cross in the determined voter who stands at the polls ready to fight for what is right in every way that they know how… and through love, mercy, and the willingness to look past the smokescreen of selfishness to discover truth because they refuse to be bought by man because they know the price that Christ already paid for them.
I see the cross in every hand that goes out the window to hand that person on the side of the road whatever loose change they might have… refusing to contemplate what that person might do or not do with the money given… but simply giving it because someone asked.
I see the cross in every parent that kneels down to look their child in the eye and not roll their eyes at them but tell them that they love them too much too allow them to treat them with such dishonor and consequences and repercussions are coming… because a father who loves his son disciplines him.
I see the cross with every whisper of His name spoken in holy reverence and adoration and deep affection… knowing that their is no other name given to man by which we can be saved.
How can we become comfortable with the cross?
and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24
If your life has become so comfortable that you are comfortable with the cross… let this week be a reminder of what happened on that cross… and for who it happened for.
You.
Don’t let the cross become mundane… and for the love of His glory don’t allow yourself to belittle it for the sake of relevance.
For some reason it seems that many today want to help people be comfortable in their mess… like a pig in the mire… but the cross of Christ was not meant to make us comfortable. There is nothing comfortable about it.
The cross is not meant to call us to comfort, but to call us to cling.
You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
Deuteronomy 13:4
He carried His cross for us… and He asks that we carry ours for Him. As we carry it we discover for ourselves with great reality that there is nothing comfortable about it…
And He was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Luke 9:23