Take up your Cross and Follow Him
I was back in Ireland over the weekend. It was not the weekend I had envisaged as I ended up attending the funeral of my mum’s cousin, David died. He was a keen cyclist and tragically died in an accident while out on his bike. When someone dies suddenly like that it really makes you think about the thread that separates life from death. It was a reminder to me to live life to its fullest every day and the way to do that is to tune in to God’s plan for my life each day. It was a reinforcement of my decision to head back to Ireland in a few weeks. I see that decision as me taking more control of my life away from my work and hopefully putting more of it into the hands of God.
David was a committed Christian and it is comforting to know that he is with God now. The minister at the funeral reminded us of the need to ask and answer the difficult questions about life and ultimately death as David had done. I was also reminded that there is nothing that I can do that will convince God to let me into heaven, it is only what God has done that matters. He sent Jesus to give us that way back to Him. The minister summed it up in the words of a hymn “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling”
I have always loved the verse in Luke 14 where Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow Him. But that passage asks us to give up everything to follow Jesus, no half measures, no compromises, everything. That is a tremendous challenge but one that I have great faith we can meet, simply because Jesus asked us to do it and he wouldn’t ask you to do something that you aren’t capable of doing. At least most of the time I have great faith that I can meet that challenge! It is important to remind myself of this call from Jesus’ when I feel like I can’t meet the challenges that life puts in front of me.
