Problems and the Cross

[Lauralea]

Jesus was unlike us in that often when we suffer, we do not have the ability to say, I am not doing this. Yet He willingly went through more for us than we will ever endure. If we deny our own cross, we are denying Jesus. Yet what is the Cross in the life of a Christian? It is being willing to follow him, observe His commandments, but it is something deeper. To deal with challenges and trials with equanimity, to be gracious even when one must be firm, to be calm in difficult circumstances... even when one must get out of a circumstance that is not the best for us, to do so graciously... And not to do these things as a mental exercise or because we are a good person in and of ourselves, but because God is exerting a calming and gracious influence over us. Just some thoughts of what I would like to be more like.