Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross. Octoechos Tone 8. Holy Great-Martyr Nicetas (374).
Galatians 2:16-20. Mark 8:34-9:1.
Read Galatians 2:16-20
Change can be uncomfortable. Whether it’s a new situation, new relationships, new habits (or breaking old ones), challenges come with change. Old ways may be counterproductive. It may take a while to regain our bearings.
As we journey through life as Christians, we have the benefit of the tried-and-true supports of scripture, prayer, worship, and fellowship. These God-given provisions ground us, root us, and stabilize us. Even then, we may be thrown for a loop. Sometimes God and the life He has given us does not go how we expect.
The 1961 Green Bay Packers training camp followed a heartbreaking season-ending loss in the NFL Championship Game. Coach Vince Lombardi began by holding up a football and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football!” Then he had the players open their playbooks to page one.
For us, the starting point we are always called to reorient ourselves by is Christ. No matter by what way we have arrived at where we are in our lives, He is now the Way. St. Paul writes that even for himself and others who came to Christ from the law revealed through Moses, there is no going back. We are not only justified by faith in Christ, we live by faith in Christ. Being justified by faith is comforting. It means we have the hope of resurrection with Christ. Living by faith in Christ can be uncomfortable. It means the ongoing change of living out our unity with Christ in his crucifixion. It means the self-affirming death to self that Christ spoke of: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”