the cross is not greater

the cross that he gave may be heavy,
but it ne’er outweighs his grace;
the storm that i feared may surround me,
but it ne’er excludes his face.

chorus
the cross is not greater than his grace,
the storm cannot hide his blessèd face;
i am satisfied to know that with Jesus here below,
i can conquer every foe.

the thorns in my path are not sharper
than composed his crown for me;
the cup that i drink not more bitter
than he drank in gethsemane.

the light of his love shineth brighter,
as it falls on paths of woe;
the toil of my work groweth lighter,
as i stoop to raise the low.

his will have i joy in fulfilling,
as i’m walking in his sight;
my all to the blood i am bringing,
it alone can keep me right.

you are probably wondering by now if my computer keyboard was broken when i typed this email, or if i don’t know how to capitalize, or if i just cut and pasted a bad copy of this hymn.  well, none of those guesses are accurate.  to be honest, the title of this hymn struck me the first time i read it in one of my old hymnals.  i was not familiar with this song at all.  my initial reaction was “something’s gotta to be wrong with the theology of this song!”  because the cross is greater.  but when i read the verses, i realized that what the author was trying to say.  i realized that there is a huge difference between “the cross” and “The Cross.”  How different this hymn reads when I use the right capitalization and put the emphasis in the right place. 

Couple of comments on the lyrics:

• “never outweighs His grace” – When I read this line, I got the mental picture of a scale – not a modern, digital scale that tells me to lose weight.  No, an ancient scale where there are two sides.  You know what I am talking about.  The kind of scales merchants used to measure how much of a product to give someone.  If we have Jesus’ grace on one side of the scale, and we load all of our burdens, pains, and our cross on the other side of the scale, the scale would not even move.  It wouldn’t even budge because His grace outweighs.  As Paul said, His grace is sufficient.  The Greek word for “sufficient” in 2 Cor. 12:9 is the idea of raising a barrier.  I get the mental picture of a seawall.  A wall that is so strong the winds, the storms, and the sea, cannot overpower it.  Isn’t that what God’s grace is?  It is that barrier that protects us during stormy times from being overtaken.
• “the toil of my work groweth lighter, as i stoop to raise the low” – Have you noticed that when we are helping someone less fortunate than we are,  our problems tend to get smaller?  We complain about what’s for dinner until we spend a day at a food bank.  We think our house needs updating until we meet someone who is homeless.  We complain about our family problems until we encounter an orphan or a single mom with no extended family at all.  If we “stoop to raise the low,” it will definitely change our perspective on the difficulty of our “toil.”

Do you remember back in 2000/2001 when there was a transition from the Clinton White House to the Bush White House?  One of the things the people leaving the Clinton Administration did was to remove the “W” key from all the keyboards in the White House.  A little practical joke that turned into a national news story, and a joke that made a few incoming Bush administration people extremely mad. 

I wonder if we should do the same with the “keyboard” of our lives.  Should we remove the “Shift” key or the “CAPS Lock” key when it comes to our lives and our problems?  Maybe sometimes we live our lives in “email format” with “ALL CAPS” to communicate our frustration.  We tend to magnify or emphasize our problems, but if we are honest with ourselves, our problems pale in comparison to what Christ suffered for us, and pale in comparison to His great grace.  I am sure we all have experienced problems in our lives, and I am not discounting the reality of the pain of those problems (especially if you are going through a tough time right now).  But as mature Christians, we should strive to have the right perspective about our problems.  We should view them in light of the Cross.  That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 

I hope you can echo the statement of the hymnwriter today no matter how big your problems seem, and say “the cross is not greater.”  “the cross” you are bearing is not greater than what the Lord carried for us, and it is not greater than His grace.  But I also hope you can testify to the following statement as well – “The Cross is Greater.”  That His Cross is greater than our medical problems, our family situations, our sins and our fears.