We may think that it is easier to avoid our cross than to embrace it. Avoidance is a detour that will take us off the holy path. To get to where the Spirit is taking you requires that you do what you should have done all along, take up your cross. It seems to me that crosses are built into life; you may get around them for a season but the call to take up your cross does not go away. It is in taking up the cross that we lose ourself and find ourself. It is in this cross-style dying that we are raised with Christ.
“Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:23–24 NLT)
