Sunday, March 23, 2014

Caregivers as Cross-bearers

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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