“It took me quite awhile—years, actually—to realize that Jesus is not inviting me to be crucified. I’m just volunteering to pick up my cross and carry it. Maybe not with grace or even steadiness, moving ahead under its weight. And it’s my cross, not the cross Jesus was compelled to bear… I suspect that in our lifetime we each have a whole assortment of crosses, all distinctly ours.
To take up my cross at all, let alone daily, sounds generous and heroic, especially if it is one of those days when I would rather not. “No time today, but I’ll pick it up on Friday… It’s Sunday, so can’t I have a day off?… I’ve got the flu and have to write a sermon—can’t I put this off until I feel better?”
But Jesus’ command is inexorable: if you want to walk with me, there are no excuses. No days off.”
–Margaret Guenther, Walking Home, p. 121
