What does it mean to carry your cross?

Joni & Friends: I have looked at my wheelchair as my cross to bear, but is it? What exactly isthe cross I am to take up daily? What about you? Is your cross your arthritis, a dead end job? Is your cross to bear an unhappy marriage, or recurring headaches? Are these the things the Lord had in mind when He told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him?

Well, I think the answer to that question can be found in the cross of Christ, because when He took up His cross, He was taking on the sins of the world; He was bearing our transgressions; He was willing to be nailed to the cross and die for our sins. And friend, that right there helps shape our view on what it should mean to take up our cross daily. It basically means to die to the sins that Jesus died for on His cross. In other words, my cross to bear is not my wheelchair, it’s my rotten attitude about my wheelchair; it’s the fear and the anxiety, the anger I sometimes have when everything about my disability seems to go wrong at once. It’s the occasional doubts I have about God being in control. These are the things I must die to, because these are the sins Christ died for. So when I take up my cross daily, I purpose to be like Jesus. I want to die to sin and live for God.