Having periods of rest, where things seem easy, where ministry is going well, where life is not hectic is not, of itself, a sign of unfaithfulness. Sometimes I think in all the talk of cross-carrying we forget that Jesus does care about us and isn’t out to just make our lives miserable all the time.

Jesus famously called his followers to take up their cross. I think this is a message that much of the evangelical church needs to hear. Many of us are content with our comfort and seem to think cross carrying is designed to be super easy. We need to reckon with what Jesus has to say about that seriously.

For too long, the church has been driven by a beguiling functional god of comfort. We seem to think that when Jesus says take up your cross and follow me, we think he means move to a nice area, get a house, attend church a couple of times on a Sunday, have some kids, get them into university, graduate jobs and retire comfortably. I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind when he spoke about cross-carrying, but it seems to be the broad plan of many in the church.

When there is a tendency like that – and it is widespread – the usual thing to do is highlight it and talk about it. So, we will get a some talk from certain quarters – often quarter like mine – that seek to afflict the comfortable a little. We want to shake them out of their comfort and encourage them towards the faithfulness that Jesus calls them to, cross-carrying and all. The problem with doing this is that some hear things that were not intended nor necessarily meant for their ears.

Sometimes it means, rather than afflicting the comfortable, we accidentally end up afflicting the afflicted. People who are already doing some significant cross-carrying start to feel “got at” or even more guilty because they hear voices speaking about many folk not doing so much carrying of crosses. It needs to be said that those who are carrying significant crosses already – and being quite faithful to Jesus as they do it and are not bowing out of his commands for the sake of their own comfort – are not the ones in view here.

It needs to be remembered in these sorts of conversations that we are calling those who could come, but won’t come, and challenging the frankly often lame reasons they content themselves not to do so. We are not discounting the reasons many might have for legitimately staying where they are. We are simply saying it can’t be right that nobody is called to harder callings. It equally cannot be the case that Jesus calls most people to the easiest and nicest of places en masse. Even if there are good and proper reasons to stay where you are – faithful, godly reasons – we are simply asking that the question is asked honestly. It is those who won’t even consider the question, who quickly dismiss any possibility without proper consideration, that we are often speaking to.

The other way that talk of cross-carrying and faithfulness is often misheard is in the sense that if everything is not extremely difficult for you all the time, you must be doing something wrong. Kind of like an inverse prosperity gospel that came out of Yorkshire or Scotland rather than America. A attitude that suggests you are only really doing right if you are properly suffering for it. If you were really being faithful, everything would be hard and miserable all the time. Then you would know you are doing right for the Lord.

I do think Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him.

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