The Cross We Carry
Have we thought about why Jesus invites us to carry our own crosses? I hope this story helps.
There was once this guy who was gladly carrying his own cross just as everyone else. The cross that everyone got was the same size in terms of the length of the vertical and horizontal bars. The cross was such a length that the vertical bar would be dragged along the ground as one rests the cross on her shoulder. The length of the vertical was ten feet.
After some time, this guy felt the burden of the cross and asked Jesus to lighten his cross. Jesus promptly cut the vertical part of the cross by two feet. So the guy was relieved and went about doing his daily chores while carrying the cross cheerfully.
Again after some time, he felt the cross a burden and asked Jesus to lighten his load. Again Jesus accepted his request and sawed off another two feet from the vertical portion. So now the length of the vertical bar is six feet. The guy was again overjoyed that the weight of the cross was lightened.
Soon everyone who had a cross arrived at a ravine that was a hundred feet deep and eight feet across. The only way to traverse the ravine was to lay your cross over the ravine and walk on your cross to the other side. Unfortunately for the guy, his cross was only six feet and he could not cross over and he was dismayed that he could not go any further.
The moral of the story is that Jesus gives us our crosses to train us to overcome future problems effectively. So let’s not grumble when our crosses become too heavy as the reward of continuing to carry it will be realised when we least expect it.
