I remember the moment well when everything clicked.
I was sitting on the screened-in porch that had been built between the two missionary staffing houses in Haiti. The long and narrow space was just wide enough for a porch swing to hang easily at the end opposite the screen door. In front of the swing was a custom table, designed specifically for the porch. Seating around the table were four collapsible camping chairs. Each morning I would take my coffee, Bible, and journal out to this special space. After wiping away the seemingly endless dirt that blew in daily, I would settle in for the next hour or so to spend time with God. It was during one of these moments, a light came on in my heart and my mind. This realization would change the way I viewed life.
My passage for the day was in Luke 9. It said, “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it’” (verses 23-24).
These were old familiar words to me. However, I struggled to understand in a practical, real-world way what it meant to “take up my cross daily.”
As I meditated on those words, I realized what Jesus was saying. The cross is a symbol of loving sacrifice. Jesus took up the cross not because it was what he wanted to do, but because it was what the Father asked him to do. The realization hit me; my life is not my own to live. Picking up my cross daily is choosing to give up my own will, and instead, do what the Father asks of me.
Moving to Haiti was not part of my will. Living with limited electricity and running water was not what I would have chosen for myself. Watching people around me struggle in ways I have never seen in the U.S. was not part of what I envisioned as part of my 5-year plan. Leaving Haiti and moving back here was also not part of what I wanted for myself.
The beautiful piece of this directive and the following promise is tucked in at the end of verse 24, “Whoever loses their life for me will save it.”
For many believers in the early Church this was not metaphorical but a physical loss of life. There are many Christians around the world today for which this is still true. However, in much of the western world, losing our lives takes on a different meaning. It refers to letting go of our own dreams and aspirations and picking up the ones God has for us instead. He is asking us to deny the call of our culture to live for our own happiness and chose a mindset of sacrifice. It is in this death to self we find the freedom to become who we were always intended to be (Enduring Word Luke 9:23-27).
“Amazingly, the people who live this way before Jesus are the ones who are really, genuinely happy. Giving our lives to Jesus all the way, and living as an others-centered person does not take away from our lives, it adds to it.” –David Guzik
Understanding these verses through the context of the life I was choosing in that season was profound and encouraging but also challenging.
A key word in that verse is “daily.” I am not going to lie, living an others-centered life while on the mission field was fairly easy. There were some days when it still had to be an intentional choice, but for the most part, this was what I was there for. Now that I am back in the United States, picking up my cross daily is not so automatic. It is easy to get wrapped up in day-to-day activities. I so quickly forget the joy that comes from living an others-centered life. I am so thankful for God’s grace that allows me to pick up my cross when I have set it down and begin carrying it with Him again.
What, if anything, has kept you from putting aside your own will and living an others-centered life instead? What gets in the way of you living this mindset every day?
