Worth It

While in the Holy Land, we went through the "Via Dolorosa" or the way of suffering.  It also the name of the street referring to the path that Jesus walked while carrying the cross.  As part of the pilgrimage, we took turns in bearing the cross and stopping at the very locations of the fourteen stations.  The cross I carried was light.  I was not tied to it nor was I being whipped to get me moving. I did not carry it all the way to the crucifixion site and had just about 7 minutes in carrying the cross with the support of my wife Michelle at the back end. With the cold breeze, I was wrapped in my comfy jacket and scarf while Jesus was almost naked and fresh with wounds from the whipping and crowning of thorns.

It was an experience for me to even more appreciate the depth of Christ's love for mankind. He could have chosen not to suffer at all, but He chose to save us. For Him, we were worth it.

What are the crosses you carry?  Are you carrying them for the Lord, just as He carried the cross for you?  Like my experience in the Via Dolorosa, my own suffering with my crosses in life pail in comparison with the kind of physical and emotional suffering that Christ went through with His Cross.  And even yet if we suffer more than what Christ went through, can we say that Christ is worth it?

As for me, I can think of nothing else greater and more worthy than our Lord Jesus Christ.  "The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:41)."

Lord, you are worth the sufferings we go through. Forgive us of the times we complain because of little discomforts, delays, or disappointments.  May we learn to value the Cross and realize daily that through Your suffering we are offered salvation.  Thank you for considering us to be worth it.  Amen.

"In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us (Ephesians 1:7-8)."