Choosing Your Cross

"Nobody's better than you, and you're no better than anybody."

We love to parrot Mary Mihalic's quote over and over again, but often we forget the significance of the latter half of the quote. In the quest for self-confidence and an understanding of our worth, we repeat over and over: "No one is better than me!" desperately latching our worth to the knowledge that no one is superior to us, we are at the top. The struggle with attaching our identity to outside circumstances means we rely on others' lowness to validate our greatness. Have you ever imagined looking a murderer in the eye and saying, "I'm no better than you!" or a rapist and saying "No one is better than you"? The decent, good part of us might fight for the need of consequences, which are absolutely necessary to an extent, but the evil, selfish part of us wants to crush them, destroy them, remind them that they are in a different category than us. But they're not in a different category. We're not. When God looked down on his creation he said, It is good. He did not pick apart each of us, determining only some of us worthy of redemption. On the cross, Jesus not only died for the repentant thief, but the one who rejected him as well. I struggle to understand how he can love me, but to also love the one who spits at His face? My tiny understanding cannot fathom it. But am I not the one who spits at His face? Every time he reaches out to me in love and I choose my selfish desires over his freeing will for me, I reject Him. All the moments he whispers to me with a smile and I storm away in anger at his gentleness, I choose my cross, and it's not the cross of the penitent thief. There is no one better, or superior to me in God's eyes, but do I treat others as if I was no better than them? Do I love every person knowing I am looking on the face of Christ? I must love, and find the joy in loving the unlovable. Then when my eyes look on any face, in the mirror or otherwise, I can know that being no better or worse than anyone else means that all are equally welcome to all of Christ's love in me.

This blog was written by Gabry Faraj. You can find Gabry on Instagram @Gabsfadah.