Which Cross?
This earthly life is not without a cross... each person is called to carry his/her own cross..... but which cross are you carrying? your own or that of others?....... what can be the reason(s) that  can make us unknowingly carry the cross of others...... If the other person is not 'responsible' for his/her mistakes in life, if they are not accountable for their shortcomings  then it's someone else fault..... and that someone else can be you. You have heard  the story of the man who complained to God about how heavy his cross is until God agreed that he can change it. So the man went into the room where there were various crosses in height, weight and size. Having looked at all, he ended up taking back his own which he complained about. Therefore there must more than carrying your own cross. How big is the cross that you carry and under which circumstances would you ask for a different cross? At the end of the day each person has to carry his /her cross; the one who called us to take up the cross and follow Him, if we want to be his disciples also invites us to come to him if we are heavily burdened and He will give us rest. He invites us to learn from Him, for His yoke is easy and burden light. We need to remember this invitation when the burden becomes too heavy.... Anxieties, fears and guilty feelings of  mistakes from the past can be some of the underlying reasons for trying to carry the cross of our loved ones in addition to our own and that can make your own cross heavy. The Lord Jesus is the only person who carried the heaviest Cross ever, our individual ones are just a splinter of his. Therefore we can not carry the cross of the other.... each is called to carry his/her cross .......we can support each other in prayer for strength to be able to persevere through the ups/downs till the end.....Uniting your tiny cross to that of Jesus is a way of finding meaning, which can make your burden sweet..

Mistakes of God?
Does God makes mistakes?.........when terrible things happen to good people?..... when innocent babies are born with incurable disease?...... when a natural disaster struck suddenly?........a loved one loosing the battle to cancer? ......when overwhelmed with the un-explainable, what crosses your mind? Where is God you may ask or blame...... But does God makes mistakes?  In Scripture, (Lk. 6:12ff) we read that Jesus spent the whole night in prayer and then chose his closest friends or his Apostles. The list was not impressive by human standards.... not the highly educated, sinners, doubters, unstable, irrational, etc. etc. Did Jesus made a mistake in praying and choosing Judas Iscariot as one of his closest friends? God loves all and wishes all to be saved. He chooses both good and bad and offers them equal chance to make a free choice. Nathaniel was without any guile but he also has to accept Jesus' invitation just like unstable Peter. If God makes mistakes, then we should not be alive today, but we are because of His unending love allowing the good and bad to live so that in the end all might be saved. Take a look back at your life.....are you surprised that God did not strike you down in anger?... is that a mistake? No that is how much God loves the sinner and not the sin......Everyday is an opportunity to be reconciled,...... total conversion ......before it's too late. Our Lord Jesus took a risk when he taught us to call God: 'Our Father', for doing so he automatically made us heirs to the kingdom of God. We became adopted children and that is not a mistake! See how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!......... ( 1 Jn 3: 1-3) is that a mistake? God chooses the weak to shame the strong and the poor to shame the rich...... and that is no mistake for it's not by might and it's not by power but by the Spirit. Therefore let the weak say:  I'm strong, let the poor say I'm rich because of what the Lord has done...... sing praise.......for God does not make mistakes. If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.........the cruel death of Jesus on the cross was not a mistake. Can anything then separate us from the love of Christ? trouble or hardship or death of  a loved one? illness of a loved one? persecution or famine or danger or sword............?  No!..... no,  in all these things and under any circumstance, we are and can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Let us be convinced like Paul, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will (and or can) separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! The unconditional love of God is not a mistake!