Carrying the Cross

Good Friday, 2013. My daughter and I participated in our communities annual Cross walk. For those who don't know what a Cross walk is, let me explain a little. A group of people meet at the church where the good Friday service is going to take place about a half hour before the service. We have prayer and then take an actual wooden Cross and walk around the streets, neighborhood or wherever we can. We start at the church and then end up back at the church. Pretty cool, I think. This year was our third time participating. I wanted my daughter with me to remind her of what the day was all about. Not just another day off of school. That Good Friday actually means something.

This years walk started at FBC in Sycamore. A group of about twenty people or so had gathered on a beautiful Friday morning. The pastor said a prayer and then we got started. A couple of young men in the crowd volunteered to start carrying the Cross. We headed out of the parking lot and headed east towards downtown Sycamore. We went as far as the courthouse. When we got to the courthouse, I felt the strong urge to actually carry the cross for the first time. So I switched with the young man who was in front and the other person switched out also. So we started to go around the courthouse. When we got back to the orginal corner where we switched, we asked again if anyone would like to carry it. No one stepped forward. So on we continued.

Now the Cross isn't that big or heavy. But it is square and my shoulders are not. So after about a little over half way back, my shoulder started bothering me. I started thinking, "wow, this is getting heavy". Then I thought, "you sissy boy, Jesus carried His Cross how far after being almost scouraged  to death, stop complaining and carry on."

The next day, I drove my car the same route to see how far we actually walked. It measured exactly 1.1 miles. So I was complaining about being uncomortable for exactly .6 miles. Wow!! Carrying the cross, feeling the weight and a little uncomfortableness was very humbling and sobering. I kept imagining Jesus and His walk with the Cross. He endured people hitting Him, spitting on Him, beating Him. We just had to make sure we didn't get hit by a car crossing the street. Quite the difference.

I look forward to next years walk already! If you ever get a chance to participate, you should. You will never be the same!

Taking a Stand!

The other night, our daughter was on facebook, checking things out. She came across a page that someone created  entitled God. Not that bad, right? Well this person was posting about equality for gay marriages and also had the gay equal sign as their profile picture. That's not right.

So our daughter took a stand and posted on their wall about how marriage is supposed to be with one man and one woman, just like the Bible says. Someone commented back to her saying that Christians don't have a monopoly on God. Now mind you, the page was titled God. Not Alla, Buddha, Baal, or any of the Greek gods. It was titled God. Only Christians use the name God, and if using the name God, you would think that they would believe in what the Bible says. It is God's word by the way!

The attack on her began instantly. First against her faith and then it began to get personal. They attacked her physical appearance, they attacked her believing in the Bible. She had many, many, many negative posts about this. All she was doing was making a comment on what marriage is supposed to be. Not judging others about their choices of lifestyle. She has lost a few friends along the way over this, but that is a part of counting the cost of following Jesus.

Then my best friend in the whole world (well other than my wife) who is also our daughters youth pastor reminded us of this  verse.

Matthew 5:9-11New Living Translation (NLT)

⁹ God blesses those who work for peace,
    for they will be called the children of God.
¹⁰ God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

¹¹ “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you^[a] and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

I am proud of our daughter for taking a stand for what is true and right. She knows the truth and has heard the truth, both at church and at home.

John 15:18 New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first."