by Patricia Burke

Created on: October 12, 2010

The Cross and why it is important to me, could become a long story. I will try to reign in my thoughts because this is a subject that has many many answers and many reasons of importance. I hope I am able to convey the most important ones.

I grew up in an abusive home with many problems. Not only problems in the home but problems getting to go to Church. When I reached around the age of 13, I began to want to go more often. First of all, to me, every time I passed a Church and saw that big cross, it symbolized hope in me. A hope that things would get better. Rather than feel like it was God's fault that I had this horrible life, I just felt like this is the way it is. There are bad people in this world and they choose to be that way. So, my faith and hope was in God.

I had a Christian Mother but she wasn't able to take me to Church very often for a lot of reasons I will not go into. But I knew I had to find a way to go as much as possible because that was my hope of a future. A hope that things would someday be changed. My hope in that cross and its meaning was my strength to go on.

The cross is also the symbol of the Crucifixion of Jesus. I have worn a cross my whole life. I never take it off to shower or swim. It is not because it is pretty or gold, but what it stands for in the word. Jesus died for you and I. It is a personal testimony to God when I wear it for all to see. Maybe someone who needs him will see it and be reminded that there is someone who is able to take care of all their problems and all their needs.

There are people who wear a cross for the wrong reasons. I know someone who has been ill a lot in his life. Had open heart surgery, a stroke, a heart attack and then another open heart surgery all before the age of 35.  You might think, "wow, that is terrible" and feel bad for him and that is as it should be.  He is now a strong man working every day. But at the time of his second surgery, his wife went out and bought him a chain with a cross on it and told him to wear it next to his chest for protection. I could hardly believe this when I heard it because she had been raised in Church and knows that there is no magic in the cross itself. The magic is in your own heart, your own faith and hope in God. I talked to the man also, having known him to have been raised in Church. I ask him if he believed any of that to be true. He said, "no, I just put it on for her." I told him there was nothing wrong with him wearing a cross even if he did not go to Church anymore. But to always remember what that cross stood for and not what people want it to be.

You see, unshakable faith in Jesus and the cross causes hell to rage. Nothing poses a greater threat to Satan's kingdom than a Christian who is unmovable in faith. Why? Because it is by faith and its released power that Satan's kingdom is subdued. By faith in the cross, righteousness is born and demonic fires are quenched. By faith in that Cross, I was able to endure the hell that I lived in at the time.

How I feel about the cross is what gives me the right to believe these words that are in the Bible. In my words, the Lord is saying to all his children, to call upon him in the day of trouble. It says that he will deliver us. In the book of Psalms, if you ever want to read it, it talks about the fact that if we remain faithful we can cast our cares on him always. I don't know about you, but I do know that I believe the cross to be a symbol of that promise. That promise is why I have never given up hope in any situation. I know he will always work it out for me.

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