It had been a busy weekend, and now I was quite ill. My fiancee and I had driven a maxivan van full of young Christian Scientists to a youth meeting in another state. I had led two discussion groups, kept a watchful eye on the young people we drove to this meeting, and still had to give a wrap-up talk the following day. I was exhausted and fell into bed, but that night I slept very little. I woke ill and spent most of the night praying.
"Father," I prayed, "what do I need to know, what do I need to do?" The answer came as I remembered this verse from the Bible: "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Matt. 16:24. I knew I had to take up the cross, but what did that mean?
Impersonal evil would (should we allow it) stop the advancement of good for humanity. Advancing the Cause of Christ supports the inevitable destruction of evil and its claims of power to destroy or halt good. We take up the cross when we lean on the power of Spirit radically, denounce materiality, and press on in our living of the truth Jesus taught.
