Take Up Your Cross Daily

The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, and that quote came to me the other day as I was considering the day-to-day actions in my own life. How often do I consider why I am doing this or that thing? The majority of our lives are filled with routine actions that we do automatically because that's the way I've always done it, that's the way others do it, or that's the way it's always been done. Now in one sense, this is good for us because it would be impossible to consider deeply every choice we have to make. We would end up being paralyzed by trying to figure out which cereal to choose for breakfast. But in another sense, if we never stop to consider what our lives are about and why we do things, we might very well end up doing things that are meaningless or even outright harmful, just because we want to or just because others are doing it.

In Jeremiah 7, God admonishes the Jewish people for engaging in very sinful behavior such as oppressing the poor and even sacrificing their own children in pagan religious practices. They were doing it while still worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem which was supposed to be Yahweh their God who had explicitly commanded them not to do these things. So how did they, over and over again, end up doing the opposite of what God had told them to do? They almost certainly did not intend to end up evil. Rather it started with ignoring God's Word and not spending time examining their lives in comparison to it. Day by day they would have just gone along with whatever happened and slowly but surely started to take on the practices of other nations around them. Furthermore, humans are naturally inclined to be selfish and not to care for others, so the less they examined their own lives, the more their lives would trend toward loving themselves and not loving others.

This is not just a problem for the ancient Jews, this is the problem of being human in a fallen world. This problem of moral decay is widely seen in our society today. Why do marriages and families fall apart? Why do kids not respect authority? Why are drug use and other crime rampant in many areas of our country? No one intends to end up as an addict, criminal, abuser, neglectful parent, or simply a depressed person who has trouble managing their own life. We take little steps day by day giving in to our desires and going along with the flow of society. If we never consider what our life or society is really about, we will simply start to waste away morally. 

Our character is formed or misformed in the little choices we make day by day, and if we intend to have good character we are going to have to stop and consider what actions are the right actions. Then we need to regularly remind ourselves of our commitment to do these right things. Jesus commanded His followers to "deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23) As a follower of Jesus, I need to daily make a commitment to Him and choose to sacrifice my own desires so that I can love Him and love others well. I need to regularly look to Jesus for His example, guidance, and strength to become the man I am supposed to be. Unfortunately, I also regularly fail to live up to that standard, but because He took up His cross, I can keep coming back day after day, and He keeps helping me. Therefore, we do not have to just accept the decay of the world around us. Rather, with Jesus' help every day, you and I can be renewed and be part of the renewing of the world.