By Rich DuBose
“Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he [Jesus] said, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me’” (Mark 8:34, NLT).
More often than not I identify as a “follower of Jesus” rather than a Christian. Unfortunately the Christian label has become tarnished with a lot of negative things—affiliations and influences that are anything but Christian.
Mark 8:34 penetrates whatever label we choose to embrace as our identify marker and calls us to do more than believe. If we are following Jesus we must be willing to give up our way—our criticisms, opinions, and critical social media posts, and take up our cross and follow him.
We know about the cross that Jesus bore and died on, but what kind of crosses exist today? What are we being asked to bear?
killed by the Romans on the dreaded cross beams of torture, Jesus was charged by the Jewish authorities with being a religious imposture-a fake messiah. What they didn’t realize was that Jesus had come to save them from themselves.
Is it a cross for us to bear if we choose to bite our tongues and not be critical of those who clearly deserve it? Is our cross a relative who keeps trying to politicize everything when the family gets together for a meal? Maybe our cross is having to care for an aging parent, or a child with ADD.
Maybe our cross is having to live in a country that no longer values equality, religious freedom, or its immigrant population.
Dysfunction is everywhere, and there is no shortage of people who are ready to do the devil’s bidding.
I have an idea of how I think my life should go, and when it doesn’t turn out that way—I can rant, scream, and criticize everyone and everything, or, I can acknowledge that my perspective is limited and that there are things going on in the world that I know nothing about. Maybe the very trouble I’m striking out against is what God is using to solve a future problem that will emerge that I’m not aware of yet.
My well-being pivots on whether or not I’m able to pray the “Lord’s prayer,” which includes the line, “Thy will be done.” Am I OK with my will being subservient to God’s will? If not, I’ll never be content.
When I was 16 years-old there was a time when I hung out with two guys I really didn't know who could have gotten me into serious trouble. I was away at a boarding school, so my parents didn’t know anything about it.
For some reason I stayed at the school during a “home break” (a scheduled time when most kids went home for a few days). I don’t remember why I stayed, but I was one of the few dorm students who did. It happened at night, when a couple of students who went to my school but who lived in the nearby community, asked me if I wanted to hang out with them. Even though I didn’t really know them I said, sure. So they picked me up in their car and we started cruising around.
As the evening worn on, it became obvious that they wanted to steal a part off of someone’s car. It alarmed me that they were going to do this with me in the car. So when they pulled into a dark neighborhood, turned their headlights off and quietly rolled up in front of a driveway, I got out of the car and started walking down the block. I told them to pick me when they were ready to leave. I felt trapped. I can’t remember all the details, but I think they stole the carburetor out of someone's VW beetle.
We were about 10-12 miles from the school, so it would have been quite an ordeal for me to walk back. But I kept thinking what would happen if the police caught them stealing the part, and I was with them?
After a few minutes they picked me up, and thankfully they started driving back toward the school. Mind you, I was no saint, but these guys really made me uncomfortable and I was ready to go back to my dorm. But wouldn’t you know it, before we got to the school they decided to steal something else out of someone’s garage (don’t leave your garage door open at night). There were clearly people in the house watching TV, or whatever. They put the item on top of their car and held it with their hands as they suddenly veered into a nearby orange grove and started winding through the trees in a zig zag pattern until they were way out in the middle of the grove. It was pitch dark so they had their headlights on. When they finally came to a clearing there was a huge pile of stuff that they said they had stolen. At this point, I cannot convey to you how badly I wanted to get away from these guys.
Again, my fear was that they would get caught, and the police report would say that three guys were apprehended with all of this stolen property, and I would end up in prison just because I had randomly decided to hang out with them on a Saturday night.
Stuff like this happens. Only worse. Sometimes someone is killed and a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time gets charged with murder.
When I got back to the school and finally got out of the car, I made a mental note to myself to never hang out with them again. It also taught me not to hang out with people I didn't know.
Sometime later—I don’t remember how long it was, I heard of them were apprehended and sent to prison.
I was not pursuing a relationship with God at the time, but I believe he delivered me from evil, in spite of myself. This was way before I had an inkling of what it meant to give up my way for God's way. I have since learned that his all-knowing and all-seeing eye is an asset instead of a curse.
Rich DuBose writes from Northern California. Photo by Paul Groom, with Pexels
On the web at: richdubose.com. All Rights Reserved © 2025. Join Rich on Blue Sky @spiritrenew.bsky.social.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.