Taking Up Your Cross

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? - Matthew 16:24-26

Walking into the wind. Taking up your cross is about loosing yourself by following Jesus, wherever that takes you. Jesus is saying this life will not be easy or comfortable. It will involve pain and suffering. Would you rather have comfort and give up your soul?

“The Lord of Heaven desires and seeks our companionship (remember His words to the disciples, “Will you also go away?”), but we can never go far along the road if we refuse things that are hard for us. Our spiritual apprenticeship is served only as we earnestly observe what the Master does and do it after Him, not asking for shelter from winds that beat on Him, but turning our faces to that wind, taking up and embracing His cross.”