You did not make your own cross, though unbelief is a master carpenter when it comes to cross-making. You did not choose your own cross, though your stubborn will wants desperately to be in charge. No. Your cross has been prepared and appointed for you by divine love. And you are to accept it cheerfully. Take it up as your chosen badge and burden. Don't stand there arguing with it.

Tonight, Jesus calls you to submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Don't kick against it like a stubborn child. Don't trample on it in vain-glory. Don't collapse beneath it in despair. Don't run away from it in fear. Take it up like a true follower of Jesus.

Jesus was a cross-bearer. He leads the way down the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden could you desire? The way of the cross is the way of safety. Fear not to tread its thorny paths.

Beloved, let me tell you the truth about your cross. It is not made of feathers. It is not lined with velvet. It is heavy, and it galls against disobedient shoulders. But it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colors. It is a wooden cross. And a man can carry it, for the Man of Sorrows tried the load.

Take up your cross. And by the power of the Spirit of God, you will soon find yourself so in love with it that, like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly. Remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble.

May the Lord help you bow your spirit in submission to the divine will before you sleep tonight. So that when you wake with tomorrow's sun, you may go forth to the day's cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.