If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. -Jesus, Mat. 16:24

As strange as it may sound, I believe this to be one of the most beautiful things ever said by our Lord. Now, I'm aware of the ugliness of the cross, that it is a symbol of torture, violence, and punishment. However, as the Lord has also made me more aware tonight, to follow Him is to follow the way of the cross, and the fact that it is the way to Him makes it more than lovely.

To follow our King's way requires us to lay down our earthly crowns. For me, I have titles that I have earned in my line of work, that I've worked very hard for. These are titles I wear with great pride. These are titles that I strip myself of when I come to my Lord's feet, because they have no worth to me there. They are counted as loss.

This way of the cross requires us to lay down our will. We are by corrupt nature exceptionally willful, driven creatures. When we know what we want, we go to astounding lengths to get it. We will spend huge chunks of our short lives, or even the lives of others, gunning for it. We will disregard our values, our ethics for it. We will even stab a brother in the back for it. And yet when we take up the cross, we have to leave it in the dust, knowing of what little value it is (whatever "it" is). I thank my merciful God that my will is no longer a priority.

Finally, and possibly with the most difficulty, we lay down our sins. As much time as I may have spent contemplating the possible consequences of my sins, when I take up my cross, it occurs to me that there is no longer any time for that. If I am trying to atone for my own sins, I will be running around in circles for the rest of my life. Christ has a kingdom to build, and there is no time for us to be wading around in the guilt of our past sins. He made this clear when He bore the consequenses of them on His own body. So to follow Him, we must be willing to accept the finished work of Christ in this regard.

There is literally nothing better, no more holy course of action we can take than to lay everything, our crowns, our wills, our sins down, all in order to take up the cross. When we feel like we should be working or striving for the Kingdom, we must realize that our work begins here. Oh, there will be plenty of work to come, no doubt, but it all begins at the cross, where we must lay "it" all down in order to take it up.