I want to be careful not to be too careful in this devotional. Not only is the message of the cross offensive and foolish in man’s eyes, but any attempt to make it otherwise is offensive and foolish in God’s eyes. I also don’t want to explain too much behind the artwork, depriving this form of its potency. Still, I think some guided reflection can be helpful both for those ready to pick up and carry their cross and those not prepared to do so.

Furthermore, one of the purposes of this song is to be an anthem for the body of Christ, the church, to sing as one. In the poem, there are five problems that afflict the body, keeping it from cooperating to carry something as uncomfortably heavy and deathly humiliating as a cross. While in each verse, the cross answers a different issue, every believer needs the reminder of these aspects of the cross. I hope that this will inspire more verse and song written about the Cross of Christ.

The first verse addresses the tendency to keep one’s Christianity private and personal to the individual. It calls the one not bearing fruit of loving relationships to meditate on the significance of justification and to walk in Christ’s steps by laying down his or her life each day so that others may know Christ’s love through him or her.

The second verse addresses the stumbling block of feeling too wounded and broken to bear any cross on anyone else’s behalf. It calls the one who feels this way to recognize Jesus’ restoration that He accomplished on the cross, that His glory is revealed in brokenness.

The third verse addresses how many feel the torment of demonic oppression ties their hands. For the one who feels too bound up with spiritual torment to carry the cross, this song calls him to embrace the emancipation of Christ’s victory on the cross and bear his or her cross as the means to conquer spiritual adversaries.

The fourth addresses the appetites of the flesh and the old self to which Christians so easily succumb, independent of following Christ. To the one who is living for self and too distracted or drawn away by idolatry and addiction, this song calls to ongoing liberation, carrying a cross that calls for an embrace of death to self and the experience of walking with Jesus in newness of life.

The fifth verse, like Jesus’ end to the Sermon on the Mount, delivers an ultimatum to those who remain uncommitted to carrying their cross and shows them a polarization, calling them to bear their cross with Jesus, or they will find themselves on the wrong side of the lines drawn by persecution.