What Would You Be Willing To Exchange Your Life For?

“Sing some more Mommy.”  Seven-year-old hands tug at my coat, barely sitting down, holding a paper that slipped out of my Bible from a funeral of a neighbor we loved.

“Oh the Old Rugged Cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction to me”, I fill noted full, heart broken for a world rejecting the suffering done on Calvary.  A voice crackling, ragged, as worn and tired as that Ol’ Rugged Cross I sing about.

And sometimes don’t you just feel like your drowning?  Sometimes, isn’t a song of hope the only thing keeping you from breathing in a world that feels sufficatingly small?

“And I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down”….Seven year old sings along now.  It’s been two verses, young and old alone, cuddled now on the couch.

And oh the sharing of the cross is so much richer than singing of sufferings alone.  We were never meant to be independent cross bare-ers, but fellow sojourners down this road he calls us on.

And I think…How many don’t even know the cross?  This child in my lap, and many others never hearing the song that led hearts out of the depression, warriors to liberty from the gravest of situations.

And why do we despise the cross’ representation?  Why do we despise suffering?  Why do we think Christianity is all roses, and happiness, and blessings?

This little one eats up the words as I keep on singing….

“For t’was that old cross, Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me…”  She listens, as if finding some precious jewel in my every rickety sounding note, as if seeking out prizes in the words she seems to feel….

And yet, as days pass and the burdens of this life press against her….will she get that the cross is not to be cursed.  That life is not all resurrection.  That blessings come in this offering of all we are to the one who died for us…

My prayer is that her doctrine might be pure….like my grandma and neighbor who sang this before turning ninety.  How they didn’t waver like the wind, weren’t led away by sweet sounding doctrines.  They stayed the course, finished the race, won the prize…..

Yet, we live in a day where many turn away from their own personal Calvaries.  They want Babylon, and Golden Calves, and religions that look more like Baal….than a life of sacrificial suffering….

“Keep singing” she calls me forward.  And like the world, I want to stop this shaky voice and give into comfort and relaxation after a long, tiring day.  But even kids know the power of words that led some of the most respected women I have loved through through the most difficult seasons they faced….

Season’s that would make, “loosing friends on Facebook” or “Not finding the right outfit to wear” look shameful, and hideous. 

“The Old Rugged Cross I will ever be true, It’s shame and reproach gladly bear.  Then, He’ll call me some day to my home far away, to where His glory forever I’ll share….”

Yes. Why do I forget?  Why do I miss that this world isn’t my home?  Why do I want the resurrection but not the death of self that makes room for His glory?  Why do I want all blessing without any sacrificial offering?  Why do I want to go higher without kneeling down low before a God who is the resurrection power?

She listens to the last note.  Voices rising together, abandoned, thick…full…“So, I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross; and exchange it someday for a crown.”

And I know then…..she gets it. His cross.  His blood shed.  His love, everything needed.  She gets that we can sing even
when we don’t feel like it.  That praise is an act of surrender, more than something we do to entertain an audience of people.

Yes, the sparkle in her eye and our loud, un-tuned voice reveal, she get’s that the cross is why she is here.  Why I am here. Why we live in such freedom.  And that this world we live in is no more than our Jerusalem; a mist, a breathe, a second compared to heaven and eternity.

This hour.  Weary. Tired. Warn out.  We can laying down our will, our purposes, and exchange what we are deficient in….for the fullness of His identity.  Lifting up voices to The One who is power in a world aching for some hope at the end of a long, weary day….

Will you join us today is singing, committing, honoring His sacrifice to day?  Join us as we willingly, “cherish that old rugged cross.  And exchange it someday for a crown.”