Today Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, trample on it in vain-glory, fall under it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; he leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? The Way of the Cross is the way of safety. Fear not to tread its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to 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 be 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. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will that you may go forth to the day’s cross with the holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the Crucified.
Adapted from Morning and Evening.
