While sitting in a coffee shop with my team in Vietnam, preparing for a day of evangelism, I listened to this song and reflected on these words.
“Follow you into the homes of the broken, follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy, God. I’ll follow you into the world.”
My first thought is how creepy evangelism can be sometimes… or maybe it’s just the way my team chose to do it. Walking up to people, questioning them on their English skills, wondering if they want to sit for coffee with a perfect stranger, and then asking them to hang out over and over again. Sometimes I think we’re only getting better at stalking people and learning how to speak broken English, rather than evangelizing. (Just Kidding!)
My second thought is how beautiful this whole “take up your cross and follow Me” idea is.
[Matthew 16:24-26]
“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 lifewill 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?”
When I read these verses, I am blown away at how these words from the Lord radiate truth and are so relevant to my life. While we were in Vietnam, I found myself getting stuck in this pool of laziness because ministry was slow. When we had to go to the coffee shop and meet students, I was consumed by thoughts of how ineffective I thought our ministry was. My thoughts revolved around how I wanted to spend my time, not how God wanted me to spend the time He has graciously given me. I was on this downward spiral simply because I wasn’t choosing to take up my cross and follow Him.
The only way out of this rut was to surrender, what I thought was, my time to The Lord and take up my cross and follow Him. I’ve learned that I won’t benefit from anything that I do for myself in this life. I will only benefit and grow from the things that I can learn about Christ and the things that I learn through Christ.
As Christians, it is so important for us to remember to take up our cross daily and fight for what God has for us. Jesus didn’t hang on a tree so I could do the things that I desired, but Jesus died on the cross so that I could glorify His Father for the rest of my days.
That’s why I’m here.
That’s why you’re there.
We’re in this place, on this earth, wherever you are, to further the Kingdom of Heaven.
Take up your cross.
Follow Him.
