Beneath the Cross

My momma is a piano teacher and started teaching me at 5 years old.  By 3rd grade she had me learning to play from our church hymnal. One particular hymn I remember, not because I liked it  but because it was SO difficult!  Over the years, when playing or singing this hymn in church I got to know it so well that somehow I'd memorized all three verses!  

Fast forward to present day. As I struggle with ongoing health issues, I'm frequently asked how I'm doing.  I tell people ‘I'm learning to simply sit at the foot of the cross.’ Finally, one of those people said ‘Julie, I don’t understand what you mean when you say sit at the foot of the cross?’ At that moment, that childhood hymn popped into my mind and I realized it was the perfect answer to the question.  

Beneath the Cross of Jesus is as relevant today as it was when Elizabeth Clephane penned the words during the mid-1800s. Will you please, please allow me to share her lyrics with you so that, hopefully, once we look at them together, you'll want to sit at the foot of the cross as well (if you're not there already)?

Verse 1. Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand. [The cross forms the] shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land; a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.

Like me, at one point or another you get weary, you feel lost in a wilderness of "waiting," you need some rest from the chaos. Well, the cross is the shadow we sit beneath to shelter us from the heat.

Verse 2. Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see the very dying form of One who suffered there for me. And from my smitten heart, with tears, two wonders I confess: The wonders of redeeming love AND my unworthiness.

This is the pure gospel:  We are completely unworthy of God’s love yet he lovingly redeemed us (...redeemed means to recover by payment; to buy back). Wow, let's never lose the wonder of the gospel. I personally want to experience it daily as if it was my first time standing there, speechless and staring wide-eyed at what it cost Jesus to redeem my life.

Verse 3. [So] I take, O cross thy shadow for my abiding place; I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face. Content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.

If we take the shadow of the cross and make it our steadfast place, look what we get: Sunshine from Christ’s face, contentment amidst the trials of life, honesty about our true selves (which is VERY helpful when confessing sin!) and an enduring place to worship to God almighty in spite of our circumstances.

Now do you see why I sit at the foot of the cross? There’s nowhere else to go AND there’s no place else I’d rather be.