The exchange in this weekend’s Gospel is one that we know well. The disciples proclaim Jesus is the Christ, but when Jesus begins to tell them that He will suffer and die Peter responds as many of us would…NO we don’t want that! How many times have we wanted something to go a certain way or to have it be our will? This is exactly what Peter is conveying and Jesus has a harsh response and reminds all of them (and us) “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” But what exactly does that mean? We all have examples of when we wanted things to go a certain way: getting hired for a job, peace in a conflict, healing, suffering taken away…the list goes on. If you remember, even Jesus when praying in the Garden of Gethsemane prays to the let the cup pass from him, BUT He concludes his prayer with “not my will but yours be done.” He gives us the model to follow. We should want God’s will to win out over our own every time, especially when it opposes our own. If we truly want to follow Him, we should focus on this: “not my will but yours be done.”

What do we need to let go of this week to follow Him?