Lay It Down, Pick It Up.
"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'" —Matthew 16:24 Self-denial isn't something we like to think about. Everything in our culture is directed toward the fulfillment of every desire. The very thought that we would purposefully suppress those desires is akin to failure in our minds. But Christ offers us a different picture. Deny yourself. Not only on a small scale of personal desires, but deny yourself unto death (take up your cross). We ask, "What possible good could come of me laying down my life, or what good could possibly come from denying my desires?" Jesus expounds on the call, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" From the earliest days of the church, i