Take Up Your Cross

In Luke 9:23 Jesus instructs His disciples to "take up their cross," these words by the nineteenth century minister and hymn writer Walter Chalmers Smith capture well that command. 

But all through life I see a cross
Where sons of God yield up their breath;
There is no gain except by loss,
There is no life except by death,
And no full vision but by faith,
Nor glory, but by bearing shame,
Nor justice, but by taking blame;
And that Eternal Passion saith:
Be emptied of glory, right and name.