Thank you for all the immense compliments and support you have given me with the release of BLOGGED. It all means so much to me. I could have never imagined all of these amazing comments from you guys. You're the best! Although we all need compliments from time to time I cannot take credit for these writings because I truly believe that God put these writings on my heart and that the words that are in the book are not mine, but His.
My blog will be a little different from now on. I will still being doing blogs but it will now be two blogs every other month. My blogs will also be shorter so you don't get too bored. The last thing I want you guys to do is zone out and stop reading because the only reason I started this blog is to keep you guys entertained and to see what God has put on my heart to say.
Let's start, shall we?
I bet we all know Simon of Cyrene from the Bible. We don't know a whole lot about him but we know he is the man that helped Jesus, carry His cross. Although he was forced by the Romans to help Jesus carry the cross we believe that the further he helped Jesus carry His cross he actually wanted to help Jesus.
It's such an amazing story as I'm sure all Christians would agree. How many of us would want to help this man bloody, tired, and weak carry his cross to the hill after being demanded to help him? Simon was probably tired, he was probably hungry and could go for a delicious Deli sandwich right about that time. All kidding aside though, if we knew who Jesus was but didn't know he was the Son of God would we have found in our hearts they we would want to help him?
In today's world religious people use the phrase, "I'm carrying a cross" when they are struggling with something. We can never imagine what a burden the cross was to Jesus but we have such a small portion of it here, on Earth, when we go through hard trials.
Every person on this world deals and struggles. There isn't one person who hasn't struggled or will not struggle. That's just life and it is how we earn our rewards in Heaven. But do we ever want to help people carry their crosses while still carrying ours?
Would we really do that? Be honest with yourself. I have my own struggles why would I want to help someone with their struggles? I have enough on my back right now.
For me, I don't think I would help someone with their cross and when I say this I almost feel guilty. Jesus wants us to help each other get to Heaven. That is why we were put here. Because we are helping each other get to Heaven. This is our task.
We have our fun busy lives. We have midterms, we have our jobs, we have our family life, we want to hang out with our friends, we have to help out at Church so how can I help out someone when I can barley help myself?
It's hard. Like I've said a million times before, Jesus never said following Him was going to be easy, but he did say it would be worth it. Don't go around putting people's problems on your shoulders. That isn't what I am implying.
How many times do we smile at total strangers during the day? We just go on with our lives not caring about what the people at the grocery store or mall think. They have their own lives why would we care? Because those are our brothers and sisters in Christ. How many times do we help our siblings with homework without grumbling or wanting something in return? How many times do we say we'll pray for people and not do it? How many times do we send a nice to text to our friends saying, 'hey how are you? I miss seeing you.'
This isn't no where near as much as the cross Jesus had to carry. But we need to help people carry their cross and be like Simon. Fr. Christopher once wrote, "Whether Simon marched the whole way in bitter inner protest or received the grace of joy and understanding as he went along is a matter of surmise. He and his family were fully rewarded in due time by the gift of the Christian faith."
My friends our goal is to get ourselves and others to Heaven. That is why we are on earth. Help your family members, friends, or even classmates carry their cross. No matter if it's a subject they are struggling with in school or something that may be much bigger. God knows what he is doing, my friends and all God will ever do is good.
Living Fearlessly,
Sammy
We're all dry bones longing for a Savior waiting for the God of life to put us back together -Ike Ndolo, Memorial
