When Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23), He wasn’t speaking about carrying a physical burden. He was speaking about the path of love — a life of surrender, faith, and perseverance in the face of trials. Many people have asked me what this means in everyday life, and it’s one of the most beautiful invitations Christ gives us.
To “take up your cross daily” means learning to accept, with faith and love, the moments in life that ask us to die to ourselves — our pride, selfishness, fear, or comfort — so that Christ may live more fully in us. It’s not about seeking suffering for its own sake; it’s about following Jesus in the way He loved: freely, faithfully, and without turning away when love becomes costly.
Each day gives us a new “cross” to carry — sometimes small, sometimes heavy. It might be forgiving someone who hurt us, enduring an illness with patience, or choosing integrity when it would be easier to compromise. These crosses are not punishments; they are invitations to trust God more deeply and to walk the same path of sacrificial love that led Jesus to resurrection.
The Church teaches us that this daily carrying of the cross is not a burden meant to crush us, but a road that leads us into freedom. When we unite our sufferings, struggles, and even our disappointments to the Cross of Christ, they become a place where grace flows. The cross is no longer a symbol of defeat—it becomes a meeting place between our weakness and God’s power.
So when Jesus says, “Take up your cross daily,” He is saying, “Let Me walk with you in everything.” To follow Him is to let His love shape our response to every challenge, every choice, every moment. In carrying the cross, we discover not despair, but a deeper life—because the One who carried His Cross first walks beside us still.
May we never fear the crosses that each day brings, but embrace them as signs of love’s work in us. For the Cross, carried with Christ, always leads to resurrection.
— Fr. John Matthew, for Christian Way
