Then he called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said:  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.  Mark 8:34-38 NIV

When you work in law enforcement and you wear a uniform, you get different reactions from different people.  There are those that just want to get your attention, they will make stupid jokes like the old and tired, “I didn’t do it” or if they are with a friend, “he did it”.  Others will watch you carefully and suspiciously as if they hope that you don’t find out what they just did.  Some will look at you with disgust. Some will actually be kind and supportive.

I remember while in college I was working for a local law enforcement agency and was in uniform when I met a group of coworkers at a local diner for dinner.  I had just finished my shift. It was midnight and I was tired but hungry and decided to stop in for a bite.  The place was nearly empty but over in a corner booth I saw a male friend that I had not seen in a while.  I walked over and spoke to him.  His eyes got bit and he looked very agitated.  I told him who I was and he responded, “I don’t know any cops”.  He was adamant that he didn’t know me.  I walked away bewildered and a bit embarrassed.  I couldn’t figure out what the problem was.  I was young and naive and new to the law enforcement field at the time.  Looking back now I realize that he could have been under the influence of some type of drug which caused paranoia.  He went on to marry a good friend of mine and I never brought the situation up but I always eyed him cautiously.

The thing that effected me most about this situation is that I am one of these people that like to be liked.  I try to be kind to everyone.  I try to be honest and fair in dealing with people and especially in my younger days I tried to be fun loving and friendly with everyone.  Now I used to be really shy but once I got to know someone I hardly ever gave them a reason not to like me, unless for some reason I just didn’t care for them.

I learned with this experience early on in my career that some people were going to despise me simply because of the clothes I wore.  Some people were going to see the badge on my chest or my waist and the firearm on my hip and it would totally change their view of me.  Now even though I like for people to like me and I try to live at peace with everyone as best as I can, I was a bit bothered by my friend’s reaction.  I wasn’t so bothered however, that I quit my job, changed my major and abandoned my law enforcement career.  You see I felt a strong calling for that career and I was determined to see it through.  I was not going to let the rejection of someone that I had considered a friend  discourage me.

So why would I let someone discourage me from living the Christian life?  Why would I let someone discourage me from talking to them or someone else about the awesome changes that Jesus has made in my life?

Jesus tells the crowd that they will have to deny themselves.  We live in a generation where denying ourselves is not the “in” thing to do.  We live in a selfish generation where everyone wants what they want and they want it right now.  But Jesus says if you want to follow him, you must deny yourself.  He tells them they must take up their cross.  If you have not read the book “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel, then I highly recommend that you do.  In this book Lee Strobel describes the beating that those sentenced to hang on the cross had to endure.  It was so brutal that often times ones internal organs would be exposed. In many cases the person would die during the beating before ever being hung on the cross. Once they endured this beating they were expected to carry this cross up the hill to the spot where they were to be nailed to the cross and hang their until death.  You may say that’s horrible and not want to read such a thing, but remember this is not fiction.  This is what Jesus Christ endured for you and me.  He went through this because we are sinners by nature and we can’t stop ourselves from sinning.  He endured this humiliating, excruciatingly painful death to save us from our sins.

Can you endure a little ridicule here on earth to spend eternity with Him?  Can you deny yourself a bit of pleasure here to spend eternity in a place where you will experience nothing but peace and joy?  I hope so, because if not then you may spend eternity in a really hot place experiencing misery.

Jesus tells us here that if we want to follow Him, that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.  When we take up our cross we are bearing some of the burden that comes from living in this sinful world.  We must go through some hard times.  He never promises us that if we follow Him that it will be easy.  He does, however, promise us that if we live a life here that shows that we are not ashamed to call him our savior that He will be proud of us when we go before His Father in heaven.

We can be so determined in so many situations.  I was so determined to have that career in law enforcement that I was willing to endure some ridicule, some grueling training, some hard times and disappointments.  I was willing to endure these things because I knew that in the end I would have what I had always wanted.

Many years while I enjoyed my career in law enforcement, I wasted that time by not professing Christ as my savior.  Many of those I worked with were unsaved and I did nothing to attempt to bring them to Christ.  I was a female working in a male dominant field and I was afraid of what they would think of me.  In not doing that, I strayed from God and got into sin that caused me nothing but heartache and sorrow.  Just like the Israelites wandering around in the desert, it took me way too long to get where I needed to be.  Looking back I wonder about how much better my life would have been then had I put God first.

If you listen to the news reports and you read the book of Revelation, you can only surmise that our time on planet earth is getting short.  None of us know how much time we will have.  Please don’t spend that time trying to impress man and being ashamed of God.  Man cannot help you when your time on earth is through.  Be bold enough to proclaim the awesome power of Jesus Christ in your life.  Once I got that through my thick head it made my life so much better.  I now endure hardships with a smile on my face because I know that my God is bigger than any problem I may face.  I know that my God is so much bigger than any human that may try to cause me trouble.  So don’t be ashamed of God, be bold and be proud of your Christianity!

Have a great day!