Hard Truths: Episode 12: Take Up Your Cross

Send us Fan MailIn the final episode of Hard Truths, we come to the hardest word Jesus ever spoke to a crowd: “Take up your cross and follow me.”This is not a call to self-improvement, but to self-denial. Not an invitation to add Jesus to your life, but to lay your life down and receive His. From Mark 8, we see that following Christ is not a hobby, a lifestyle tweak, or a religious accessory — it is a death and a resurrection.In this closing reflection, we wrestle with the truth that there is no crown without thorns, no life without death, and no resurrection without a funeral. Yet this is the good news: the life we lose in Christ is the life we could never keep anyway — and the life He gives is eternal, unshakable, and free.These truths are hard. But they are life-giving.