We are called to be cross-bearers. I recently read an article by Randy Alcorn called “What
does a Cross Bearer look like?” Randy said cross-bearing involves
complete devotion to God and following Him above all else. It also
involves putting the needs of others before one's own needs.
What Randy says next so
applies to Christian caregivers. Randy goes on to say the following:
Cross-bearing “means carrying your cross is not just one big
sacrifice that you make, then you’re done, like giving one of your
kidneys, or selling your house and giving to the poor or that time
you ran out in traffic and pulled the kid back from the bus.
This
is something you do every day. So it’s a thousand or ten thousand
daily sacrifices, a lifetime of little loving acts, which
cumulatively become huge. It’s a man who loves his paralyzed wife
for forty years by saying no to his sexual desires every day, and
dumps her bag of urine three times a day, to the glory of
Jesus.
It’s a mother who cares for a son who never gets out
of bed, day after day, and does it without complaining. Not just the
person who dies in the coliseum in one triumphant hour, torn apart by
lions because he refused to deny Christ.
It’s saying no to
sleep to get up and pray and read the Word day after day, saying no
to living in a mansion and owning a nicer car even though that might
be fun but not as fun as giving to keep a child alive, of living more
simply so that others may simply live, day after day. It’s doing
the humble job that nobody applauds, but needs to be done, and which
is seen sometimes by no one but the Audience of One. Really, what
carrying your cross daily is, is being humble, a servant,
God-centered and others-centered, not self-centered.”
Yet Randy goes on to point
out that cross-bearing will be rewarded with eternal blessings.
(Matthew 5 and I Peter 5:5-6) Sometimes family care-giving is so
very difficult and challenging, but know, dear caregiver, that you
are doing God's work. You are bearing the cross of Christ, and your
eternal reward is great!
If you want to read the
entirety of Randy article click on the link below:
http://www.epm.org/blog/2008/Apr/15/what-does-a-cross-bearer-look-like
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