Good Friday

           My cousin Cheryl shared this parable, and it’s one of my favorites, so here is it is, in honor of Good Friday. A man was complaining to God about all his problems and how heavy his cross was to carry. So God told him to come into his cross room, lay his cross down, and choose another. In the room, the man saw crosses of all sizes-big, small, sky-scraper size, but in the corner was a tiny cross. The man asked, "God, can I choose that one?" God replied, "Sure, that’s the one you came in with."

The moral of the story is obvious, that problems come in all shapes and sizes and as heavy and big as our problems seem to us, rest assured, there are bigger, heavier problems out there. Good Friday is as good a time as any to reflect on our “crucifixes”, the crucifixion of ourselves and others, reflect on the weight we carry, and our perceptions of it all.

The other morning as I was waiting at the hotel, a woman in a wheelchair came out into the garage. She wheeled over to her car, opened the trunk, and proceeded to work with the harness on a pulley system to get her body hoisted up, lift her wheelchair and secure it in the trunk, and manoeuver to the driver’s seat. In the process, she dropped her keys, so I went over and picked them up, handed them to her, and asked if I could help her at all. She looked at me, almost confused, which confused me, and politely declined my help. While I know she realized I was just trying to help, she really looked at me as if to say, “Do you need help getting into YOUR car? No? Than why did you presume I needed help getting into mine?”

I went back to wait on my ride, and my valet-friend said he tries to help her too, but she never accepts, and does it all on her own just fine. I was in awe of her independence, but I admit I welled up a little just watching her go through this rigmarole to drive to work. I admit that I felt sorry for her. It’s not spiritual, but there you have it. I chastised myself for my thinking. I was wrong presuming I knew anything about her life and the cards she was dealt just based on her being in a wheelchair, and worse, I was wrong for feeling sorry for her. How dare I presume that just because she is physically challenged that her life is lacking! That “handicapped” lady may actually be happier than me! Her physical cross may be heavier, but we’ll never know about her emotional cross and overall quality of life.

Going back to the parable, what would your cross look like to you? Our problems are always vivid to us and our crosses seem like heavy, tall skyscrapers. Comparing our problems to others is pointless, but on Good Friday, just for a moment, realize God never gives you more than you can carry, and yes, there are always others out there with bigger problems than your crosses.