What Shape is Your Cross?

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and come follow me." - Mark 8:34 

There is not a task too menial, nor a feat too lofty once we pick up that cross. Sometimes it's frustrating to continue to share the gospel with people, yet fail to see a harvest...but that's carrying the cross. Sometimes we're drained of energy from pouring out and scant being poured into....but that's carrying the cross. Sometimes it's downright painful to be worked on by the Lord through situations and circumstances that arise through the entrance of sin into this world....but that's carrying the cross. The cross may take different forms in different stages of life, but be encouraged, never walk without it, for in the absence of the cross there is nothing to lean on and no one worth following. Most of all, if we fail to pick up the cross, we can't point others to the empty tomb.