As long as we believe the cross is rugged, we will never outgrow the splinters that come with it. We will never learn to go with the “natural grain” of life—a cross of empowerment rather than a cross of deep, wounded rejection and disconnection.

Dolly Parton was once quoted as saying, “Get down off the cross, honey. Somebody needs the wood.” As intelligent beings, we must surely realize by now that if the threatening method of yelling at people about their unworthiness was the answer, then we as a society would not be living in the state of “What are we going to do now?” If the volume of the scream led to the joy of the dream, we would have arrived already, don’t you think?

The human body with arms outstretched is uniquely shaped like a cross, for it is our destiny that the truth of the cross set us free. The “truth of the cross” is the deep reality that each of us has the ability many times throughout our lives to resurrect from dying into a new place of deeper living. We go through the resurrection of fear to feelings to freedom when we are willing to leave the old cross on the hill where it belongs.