The Cross

Unless you carry your cross and follow me
you can’t be my disciple.
—Luke 14:27

What if I went through this day as if
I were not wearing a cross but bearing one?
What if I went through the day with my hands in the air?

What comfort do I cherish more than you, God?
What security do I need to renounce?
What privilege do I need to confront?
What do you call me to surrender
for the sake of love and justice?
Not Jesus’ cross, but mine? what is it like?

I ready myself today
to enter people’s suffering,
to stand with the poor and outcast,
to hurt with the hurting and risk with the vulnerable,
to share in powerlessness
and find power there.
To trust you alone.
You alone.

Set my hands on my cross,
my shoulder under its weight.
Let it lift me,
the cross alone lift me.

-Rev. Steven Garnass-Holmes