It's Not About What You Bear Or Wear...It's About Who You Are

Once when I walked into a Christian church wearing an ankh, one of the deacons looked at me and greeted me with "We don't wear crosses in here, we bear them." You ever been in a situation like that where you wished you could, but you just couldn't find the words that would make you feel that you had righteously put a person in their place? Well that was one of those times, and I now realize that the following is what I would liked to have said. "First of all Junior, this is not a cross it's an ankh...an Egyptian symbol of eternal life. And secondly, why are you still bearing the cross if Jesus did it for you?" There, I feel better now so allow me to pontificate just a bit about how I felt then and how I still feel today.

All my life I've heard that God Gave His only begotten son so that whoever believed in him would live forever. I've also read the following biblical verses Matthew 16:24 and 1 Peter 2:21 respectively,  "To this we were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.", and, "If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. " I believe that these passages are paramount in that they describe how true sacrifice is made and they indicate that we might experience discomfort in doing God's Will as demonstrated by Jesus.  But is sacrifice and suffering supposed to be the gist of our focus? Do we have to tell everybody, all the time, that we be going through this and going through that (bearing the cross) so that they  believe we are the ones who are saved, sanctified, and full of the Holy Ghost? I bet that  Jesus feels we should  even diminish the attention we give to his suffering on the cross, and display other images of him like his healing the sick, feeding the 5000, setting the record straight with that Samaritan woman, or restoring the life of a child. In retrospect, maybe we can start talking more about the good we gon try to do rather than the suffering or sacrificing we've already done. Doing good in the hood, ain't that something we'd all like to hear and see more of?

Went to see one of the best movies I've ever seen and I think it's a must see for all. It's called The Beasts of the Southern Wild and it speaks volumes to how the so called least of us have learned to endure and appreciate life's sometimes painful lessons. One of my favorite passages was the mother talking to Hushpuppy, her six year old daughter, who she hadn't seen since birth. It went something like this..."Every woman is a waitress and one day you gonna drop the plate and ain't nobody gonna pick it up for you. You gonna have to pick it up all by yourself without crying cause don't nobody like a pity party havin woman." Now as far as I'm concerned, that's sound, brutally honest advice for men and women alike, and something that we should at least think about cause the person it was directed at, six year old Hushpuppy,  wound up having to live it before the movie was over.  So in addition to what I've already directed to Junior back at the church; I say let's focus more on serving and sharing, and quit talking so much about what we're  bearing and what somebody else is wearing.



To comment or respond click on the word comments at the bottom of this page or email me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com.