And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

In his book True Spirituality, Francis Schaeffer offers his explanation for the lack of Christlike spiritual growth in our lives. He tells of a time in his life when, “it seemed to me that among many of those who held the orthodox position one saw little reality in the things that the Bible so clearly said should be the result of Christianity. Second, it gradually grew on me that my own reality was less than it had been in the early days after I had become a Christian. I realized that in honesty I had to go back and rethink my whole position.” And in that rethinking he concludes… “if we want to know anything of reality in the Christian life, anything of true spirituality, we must “take up our cross daily.” The principle of saying no to self lies at the heart of my attitude toward the world as it maintains its alien stand in rebellion against the Creator.”

There is a lot to unpack in this. Not the least of which is how much our work environment influences us toward self fulfillment, not self denial. Schaeffer again…..”since the fall of man, we do not want to deny ourselves. Actually we do everything we can, whether it is in a philosophic sense or a practical sense, to put ourselves at the center of the universe. This is where we naturally want to live. And this natural disposition fits in exactly with the environment that surrounds us in the twentieth century.”

As this is Thanksgiving week, I will share an insight into gratitude and cross bearing that I gleaned from reading Schaeffer. You have heard the saying, “your (or my) cross to bear” and it is generally applied to things in our lives that cause us to suffer that we are unable to avoid and God does not take away. But that view of cross bearing does not fit Jesus’ teaching because taking up your cross requires that you choose suffering or self denial. If your cross to bear is unavoidable suffering that you must endure, it is not something that you have taken up and you have not chosen to deny yourself. I think we would like to view those cross to bear aspects of our lives as fulfilling taking up our cross because then we do not actually have to choose self denial. Instead we are free to pursue self fulfillment when it is in our power to do so.

However, I do think that those cross to bear aspects of our lives can fulfill the call to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily when they are combined with gratitude. Our self, or our flesh, is not going to be thankful in the midst of such circumstances. We are not getting what we want and think we need so our self is going to express that in unhappiness and frustration due to a strong sense of entitlement to happiness or at least relief from suffering. It is an act of self denial to choose to be thankful in the midst of such circumstances.

“Give thanks in all circumstances” 1 Thess 5:18. There is a difference between reading this as “give thanks for all circumstances” and “give thanks in the midst of all circumstances.” Do we need to be grateful for the circumstances that bring such suffering to us or those we love? I would say no. But we are called to be thankful in the midst of those circumstances, which means choosing to let God still be God while those circumstances remain, and focusing on all that we do have to be thankful for. Our self is going to want to withhold any sense of gratitude until God takes care of what we are suffering. So the act of gratitude in the midst of suffering is an act of self denial.

We can practice gratitude in the midst of suffering circumstances and still be asking God to bring relief or deliverance. There is nothing wrong with that desire, it is who we are as humans. But we need to be careful that the desire does not become more important than loving God. Schaeffer explains “If the contentment goes and the giving of thanks goes, we are not loving God as we should, and proper desire has become coveting against God.”

So lest us practice thanksgiving in the midst of difficult or undesirable circumstances as an act of self denial and devotion. Happy Thanksgiving!

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.