Lots of people, having heard of Jesus’ healing works, started following him. But as soon as they learned that meant “take up the cross,” they were gone! (See Mark 10:17–22, for example.)
There is no such thing as a fair-weather Christian, as every dedicated follower of Christ Jesus learns early on. Christian discipleship, he said, includes not only taking up our cross daily, but drinking of his cup. Both of these duties may sound formidable, but this I’ve learned: Once one has felt the Christ—the presence, power, and activity of divine Truth and Love that animated Jesus and enabled him to heal—obeying Jesus’ commands is not only doable, but natural. We feel a genuine desire to grow spiritually. And this growth is God-inspired, God-empowered, God-supported, and God-rewarded.
For every cross there is a crown, a spiritual reward. Few have known this as clearly as Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, who wrote during a period of great tribulation: “I kiss the cross, and wake to know / A world more bright” (Poems, p. 12). Not only did she take up the cross of hatred and envy by following Jesus’ example in loving and forgiving her enemies, but she “kissed” it! Having just read a biography of her life and knowing her extreme difficulties at the time she wrote these words, I remember thinking, “How could she say that and mean it?” Then I realized it was because she loved the spiritual lessons the many crosses confronting her had taught her, and recognized the victories they had given her. They awakened her to a better and brighter world.
