"Pick up your cross"
“Pick up your cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).
At my friend’s church, baring your name, that first token of hospitality, only happens when you pick up your cross.
You bare your name when you bear the cross.
Oooh holy hot dang! I’ve been trying to figure it out since I took this picture, but I felt, like, proud to be a Christian when I saw these.
Does that ever happen to you? You see an artifact or witness a local tradition and get zapped with a jolt of shared identity and belonging?
They’re just name tags, but someone (a bunch of someones) did this and keeps doing it for every single member. Seeing them hanging there felt kitsch and church-nerd and so so so like what we need today. Incarnate quirkiness empowering us to pick up our cross and declare our name to the world (and to one another), introducing ourselves over and over as we grow and evolve.
“Pick up your cross,” the greatest act of vulnerability and disclosure, is an awesome act of welcome.
Grateful for the hospitality of our friends; their welcome keeps showing up over the years with compassion and curiosity.