Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Today’s text

Mark 10:35-38

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I shall be baptized?'

Reflection

There come times of cross bearing, moments when decisions face us, and we must decide: Who are we?

Do we believe that we are fitted to bear the cross of Christ, or do we surrender to modern wisdom about self-care and not giving away too much of yourself to needs of another, whether mother or father, child or spouse?

Sometimes I get to see people who understand the truth of the cross. They willingly take up the burden of caring for a family member or a friend in sickness or struggle because, as one recently told me, “I cannot not do this.”

I was moved, and I knew I was looking into the face of someone who knew what it was to take up one’s cross and follow.

The future stretches out before him, and he has no way of knowing how long the burden of caring will last, what it may require of him before it is done or how much of his life will be surrendered in the process of loving someone he must love … to the end of her days.

He knows only that he must walk the path before him and that it won’t be easy.

His is that ongoing baptism into the life of Jesus, which does not look glorious. To some, it may even appear foolish, a waste of life.

But not to eyes of faith, who see the beauty of God in every act costly love … freely given.

And in every loving surrender we see re-birth into the beauty we shall become.

Pr. David L. Miller