What our faithfulness to God ... costs other people

“… they seized one Simon of Cyrene … and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.” Lk 23:26

If anyone of us is going to be faithful the will of our Lord, it is very likely going to cost other people more than it costs us. This is especially true if they are close to us, and that is where the real rub begins. If we love our Lord, faithfulness and following His will doesn’t seem cost us so much, yet for those whose love for the Lord is young, the cost of such faithfulness seem great, too great. When we are faithful to the will of God for us, it can also mean that the plans of others may well be upset. They will often chastise us about it—‘This is the will of God? How is this faithfulness?’

Now, we can prevent this suffering, but if we are going to be faithful our Lord, we must not interfere or prevent it, we must let the cost be paid. It is the Lord’s responsibility to repay the cost He has chosen for them to pay.

Our spiritual lives will quickly stagnate if we attempt to bear the cost in ourselves alone so as to save others from bearing it. We stagnate because our lives are turned toward saving others from the will of God rather than serving His holy will for us and them. What we don’t realize, is that despite our knowing it, we are so involved in our Lord’s work in all things that we often faithfully obey Him without realizing it, and others are affected.

Are we going to remain faithful to the will of our Lord and live through the humility of living dependent upon our Lord, or are we going to follow the path of sinful pride and say—‘I will not cost others any kind of suffering’? We can refuse faithfulness and disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall in time become a grief to them and our Lord. Whereas if we obey our Lord, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our faithfulness to Him. Ours is the way of faithfulness to His will, it is His to attend to the consequences His will brings. Neither we, nor those affected by our faithfulness can know what is best for all, He does, and our Lord is and shall always be bigger than the events He calls all of us to – FOR US.

- pmwl