Pastor Nick Gatzke

Anyone who has tried to get back in shape after forty will tell you the body keeps a record. Lift heavy things and it hardens; sit still for twenty years and it softens. Doing nothing is also a decision. The untrained body still gets a shape, handed to it by whatever was easiest.

A life works the same way. Yours is taking a shape right now, whether or not you ever thought you chose one. Habits, appetites, the people you admire, the small “yeses” you hand out without thinking—all of it is pressing your life into a form. Which is why Paul told Timothy to “train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). Train. It is a gym word, and he chose it on purpose.

Jesus told his disciples what shape their lives were meant to take. But they did not expect or like the answer he gave. I wonder if you will.

The Cruciform Life

In Mark 10, James and John approached Jesus saying: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” (Mark 10:35). Jesus did not take the bait. He asked what they want; and what they wanted was two seats closest to the throne. But Jesus told them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38). The cup represented the suffering Jesus would endure; and the baptism would be under the floodwaters of God’s judgment.

James and John assumed God’s glory would be shaped like a throne. But the hour of Jesus’ greatest glory would find him flanked on the right and the left by two criminals on crosses. For the third time Jesus told them plainly that he would be condemned to death (Mark 10:33). Jesus would suffer, his followers would suffer, and their glory would not be revealed in an earthly throne room.

There is a word for a life with this pattern. “Cruciform” means shaped like a cross. Jesus lived a cruciform life, and he calls his followers into the same. Jesus’ glory looked radically different from the glory of earthly kings. The rulers of the Gentiles lorded it over people and made certain everyone beneath them felt it. “But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant… For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43–45).

The challenge for us is to choose a cruciform life instead of trying to fit into the standard mold. And you can test what shape your life is actually taking. Parents, do you care more about your child’s standing at school than about serving the families in it? At work, are you more interested in getting credit or in giving it? If you are spending all your effort to increase your assets, you won’t have time to advance God’s kingdom. But if God is your provider, you are free to spend your life on someone else.

Nobody drifts into this shape. A cruciform life is formed by resistance. The Bible says, “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17) and Paul reports, “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed” (2 Corinthians 4:8). Your life is being shaped by the request you grant when you are tired, the recognition you let pass, the money you give away, and the suffering you endure. Each one hurts a little, which is the point.

Jesus never hid it, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). A cross is not an inconvenience; it is the training gym for your life.

Looking the Part

People are always looking for short cuts to success. There’s a growing trend among online influencers who rent studios in Los Angeles or Stockholm built to look like the cabin of a private jet—oval windows, cream leather seats, lighting angled to imitate altitude. For a price, they sit in the chairs and pretend to live a jet set life. No flight, no ticket—just an image that makes them feel successful.

The church has its own version of that studio. You can learn the vocabulary, nod in the right places, serve where it will be noticed, and give when someone is watching. It is possible to look cruciform for years without ever being pressed into the shape. So ask honestly: Are you being  shaped by the cross, or are you posing in front of it?

The Glory Comes Later

The shape being pressed into us does not look glorious yet, and Jesus never promised it would. Paul described our present bodies as seed in the ground, “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15:43). The raising comes after. Until then God is conforming us “to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) on his timetable rather than ours.

Glory was on its way to James and John as well. It came by way of a cross. Glory is what the cross produces in people already rescued by it. The one who is first for all eternity made himself last, gave his life as a ransom, and now offers a place in his kingdom we could never earn and cannot lose. Your life is taking a shape. Start training for the body that lasts.

“A Word From Pastor Nick” is based on Pastor Nick Gatzke’s Bible teaching on A BETTER WORD.