Feature Article
Hearts and Crosses
by Peggy Reynoso
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. - Jesus (Matthew 16:24)
Crosses, by definition, are hard to bear.
What we may not understand is that bearing them is meant to be impossible.
Jesus fell under the weight of His cross, so exhausted that even the Roman soldiers recognized He needed help. It comforts me that my Master's strength gave out before the end of His hardest road. He was tested in every way that we are and never sinned, but He knows from experience what it is like to be weak, discouraged, and unable to go on without help.
David Wilkerson, in his book Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately? asks a relevant question for those who are weighed down by their crosses:
"Would Jesus purposely ask us to take up crosses that He knows will sap all our human energies and leave us lying helpless-even to the point of giving up? Absolutely! Not until our crosses push us down into the dust do we learn the lesson that it is not by our might nor power nor strength, but it is by His power. The cross is meant to break us, to drain us of all human effort, but He cannot take over until we give up."
That point of giving up is evidently one that God defines, because I feel like I've given up several times. I regularly say, "Okay, Lord, it's time for You to pick up this cross, because I can't go on anymore." He always gives me more energy to pick it up again.
Our cross is losing our son to mental illness, seeing our daughter suffer year after year from a mysterious illness, and patiently caring for loved ones whose needs are consuming.
Your cross is something that will bring about a crisis in your spiritual life. Our crosses are hewn by God out of some good thing our hearts are set on, but cannot have. Loneliness or prolonged grief can bring us to the end of ourselves, in a process many call brokenness.
It is a wonder what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces. -Samuel Chadwick
I think of brokenness as a journey, not as a single point in time. Brokenness is the foundation of growing in Christlikeness and the cornerstone of spiritual transformation, but it is not a point we can ever say we have passed. We started at the place of brokenness with Christ, and we keep coming back with Him to that place, usually buried under the weight of a cross we cannot bear.
Being broken is both God's work and ours.
He brings His pressure to bear,
but we have to make the choice . . .
All day long the choice will be before us
in a thousand ways.
-Roy Hession
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. -Psalm 51:17
Peggy and her husband Paul have been Navstaff since 1973, when they took their initial assignment to open a student ministry in Guadalajara, Mexico. They worked in Mexico for twenty years and moved back to the States eleven years ago to work with our U.S. Hispanic Ministries. Peggy is a member of the Hispanic Leadership Team and the mother of four children, ages 18-29.
by Peggy Reynoso
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. - Jesus (Matthew 16:24)Crosses, by definition, are hard to bear.
What we may not understand is that bearing them is meant to be impossible.
Jesus fell under the weight of His cross, so exhausted that even the Roman soldiers recognized He needed help. It comforts me that my Master's strength gave out before the end of His hardest road. He was tested in every way that we are and never sinned, but He knows from experience what it is like to be weak, discouraged, and unable to go on without help.
David Wilkerson, in his book Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately? asks a relevant question for those who are weighed down by their crosses:
"Would Jesus purposely ask us to take up crosses that He knows will sap all our human energies and leave us lying helpless-even to the point of giving up? Absolutely! Not until our crosses push us down into the dust do we learn the lesson that it is not by our might nor power nor strength, but it is by His power. The cross is meant to break us, to drain us of all human effort, but He cannot take over until we give up."
That point of giving up is evidently one that God defines, because I feel like I've given up several times. I regularly say, "Okay, Lord, it's time for You to pick up this cross, because I can't go on anymore." He always gives me more energy to pick it up again.
Our cross is losing our son to mental illness, seeing our daughter suffer year after year from a mysterious illness, and patiently caring for loved ones whose needs are consuming.
Your cross is something that will bring about a crisis in your spiritual life. Our crosses are hewn by God out of some good thing our hearts are set on, but cannot have. Loneliness or prolonged grief can bring us to the end of ourselves, in a process many call brokenness.
It is a wonder what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces. -Samuel Chadwick
I think of brokenness as a journey, not as a single point in time. Brokenness is the foundation of growing in Christlikeness and the cornerstone of spiritual transformation, but it is not a point we can ever say we have passed. We started at the place of brokenness with Christ, and we keep coming back with Him to that place, usually buried under the weight of a cross we cannot bear.
Being broken is both God's work and ours.
He brings His pressure to bear,
but we have to make the choice . . .
All day long the choice will be before us
in a thousand ways.
-Roy Hession
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. -Psalm 51:17
Peggy and her husband Paul have been Navstaff since 1973, when they took their initial assignment to open a student ministry in Guadalajara, Mexico. They worked in Mexico for twenty years and moved back to the States eleven years ago to work with our U.S. Hispanic Ministries. Peggy is a member of the Hispanic Leadership Team and the mother of four children, ages 18-29.