Look at the cross!
Across the street is our cemetery. In the middle of it is a big cross planted on a high mound that even from our house we could see it between the trees. It is so consoling to look at it. At least for me!
There are times when I am down or something seems neither right nor running smoothly, or I am not feeling well…the moment I look at that cross I am comforted and it makes me feel the peace flowing from the One hanging there and giving me the assurance that he knows what I am going through and that I am not alone. It reminds me that I am following a crucified Savior, who “for the sake of the joy which lay before him, endured the cross, heedless of its shame (Hebr.12:2)
It renews my strength and my resolve to continue following him “in-season and out-of-season”, knowing that “as we have shared in the suffering of Christ, so through Christ do we share in his consolation” (2Cor1:5), so as to enable us to comfort those who are in trouble with the same consolation we have received from him (cf.2Cor.1:4b).
Thus nothing that we endure with him and for him is useless…whatever we do, whatever we endure, whatever we experience and undergo has meaning and has saving effect for the Church and for the world; yes, and for all people entrusted to us by God in prayer.
