I read Matt. 10:38 and think back to my first class at Luther Seminary a few years ago. Jim Boyce was teaching the Gospel of Mark. The line was this: “When you follow Jesus you don’t have to go looking for a cross. One is readily provided.”

We sometimes like crosses of our own creation. We like our own version of “martyrdom.” But in the Kingdom of God, the Master is the One making the call. What he says to take up, we take up. What he says to lay down, we lay down. When we lay down our lives for his sake, we find true life in abundance.