Come Alive

I was looking at a picture from a road trip I took with some guys from a youth band I led some years back and a line from an original song bubbled up:

     "Are you moved with compassion, do you feel their need?"

And the last half of the chorus chimed in to my internal worship-fest:

So put your pride away - never did you good anyway

Pick up your cross and say, "Follow me"

We all get a chance to take up our cross.  What we take up is the responsibility to live out the new life given to us by dying to ourselves.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:38, "If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine".  Ouch!  Strong words from the Master are often hard to hear, but best to obey.

We all want the best that life has to offer us.  But whose life is it anyway?  The Apostle Paul said that he no longer lived his own life, but that Christ lived in him.  When we come in direct contact with the Word of God, and are changed as a result, the best that life has to offer is to be moved to action with compassion for others.

When Jesus sent out the first twelve Apostles he said, "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it".  You want the best that life has to offer? Jesus told us what it was. Exchange our way for His.  Exchange our truth for His. Exchange our reality for His.  Exchange our LIFE for His.  

Take up your cross.  Follow Him and come ALIVE!