What's the difference between me and you?

I've often wondered

when you walked away

and I continued on

"What's the difference between me and you?"

I wanted to ask

while you laughed, smiled, talked of meaningless joys

while I wept, mourned, fought

"What's the difference between me and you!"

I wanted to yell, to cry out, to scream

when you were loved

and I was alone

What's the difference?

I've often wondered

worried

questioned myself in the darkness and pain

I see that you love many things

shallow things you love greatly

and great things you love shallowly

but you do not love nor know the true Source of Love

I see that you joy in many wonders

the world brings you such joy

and bound to the world is your joy

but where, I wonder, in your soul is that joy alone like the joy of the Man of Sorrows?

I see passion

but merely false passions

inaccurate renderings

of His passion

I see worship flow from your life

but no sacrifice

no worship in its simplest and truest form

no heartfelt gift

What's the difference?

You have never been crucified

dead, buried

and risen to live by His power alone

Is it I who have missed love, joy, laughter, life?

Is it I who have seen great loss?

Is it I who have been walking the tragic path?

Is it I who believe not in, walk not embracing, offer not to the world genuine liberty?

And yet there was once a Man who walked this earth

who said that lest one take up his cross and walk in pattern after the One who first walked the path

there would be no eternal life, no salvation

no freedom

And the cross He spoke of meant not a good-luck charm, a necklace, a shiny emblem to be pinned upon the chest

but a rugged, awful, torturous tool upon which men were pinned — nailed, raised before the people, and shamed

that led only to the full death of men

Have you taken up the cross that Jesus spoke of?

Have you walked in His pattern of life — are you treated just as He would be treated were He to walk in your footsteps?

Have you yet followed Him, embraced the way to eternal life, loved Him who hung for you?

Have you been crucified?

What is a disciple?

A disciple is dead to this world

Alive to God's Love, Passion, Compassion, Joy

A disciple is one who has been crucified and raised again to walk in white, in Power

What's the difference between me and you?

I am fully dead to this world — no partial death would do

I know alone God's Love, Passion, Compassion, Joy — all else has been counted as loss

I have been crucified

What's the difference between what you believe and what I believe?

You believe that the Son of God was crucified

so that you might continue as you are — whole, compromised, worldly

I have been crucified

What's the difference between me and you?

You've never been crucified

It is a whole world that separates us — don't you see!

How I wish you could

Between us, dividing us, causing us to differ stands a real wooden cross

had I not hung

I would stand where you are still

however much I wanted your friendship

I simply cannot go back

I am dead to all that you now are

and the only way for you to pass

is to hang upon its crude rugged frame

and die completely

as I have

Friend, have you been crucified?

You cannot know Him until you have

You cannot love, know, truly stand with those who have

unless you have also died

What's the difference between me and you?

Do not just look and marvel at His sacrificial, excruciating, undying Love for you

Don't walk away from your own cross

Take it up, follow, oh, continue on

Copyrighted material, used with permission.