The Way: A 3-Day Devotional With Crosscut CollectiveSample

When we are born into the world, our first cry signals a need and a want: food, warmth, or the closeness of a mother’s heartbeat. When we turn two, we learn to crawl because the home around us is full of things we suddenly want to touch, hold, and eat. The lower shelves of the bookcase empty as items are moved higher and higher in a futile attempt to keep them out of the curious reach of searching hands. Throughout primary school years, we see the world full of wonder as we eagerly explore and learn. We are mesmerized by bedtime stories and enchanted by the hushed sound of snow falling in the garden as trees unburden sheets of white Christmas onto the ground below. We are open, and we are receiving, and we are discovering the wonder all around us.

When we become teenagers, our world shrinks just a little. The wonder of life gives way to the desires of want. Teetering on the edge of adulthood, our will grows with opinion and assertion. We develop interests and longings. We no longer always want to give way to others. Submission feels like punishment, and obedience feels like slavery. We want to break free, and we long for adulthood when we can make decisions without seeking permission and go where we want without restriction. So we go to University, or we learn a trade. We get married, or we stay single, either by choice or because we are waiting for “the one.” We pursue careers and interests, and we explore places and promises as they lure us in every direction at their behest. Our decisions and our direction come with a price, the cost of which has consequences we did not consider.

In the pursuit of our will, we take wrong turns, and we stumble. We hurt others, and we hurt ourselves. We do things we wish we had not done. Yet, we find ever more creative ways to deceive ourselves and appease our conscience, either to absolve ourselves of our previous actions or justify our future intended ones. We cause pain to others, and we burn friendships on the altar of trivia. We get richer, yet become inwardly poorer. As our eyes pursue every interest, we are ever more blind to the value of life until one day something happens that brings us to the stark reality of the emptiness that is within us all. For some, this moment occurs during early adulthood. For others, it occurs during twilight as a dawning awareness of life, and its many promises did not satisfy or fulfill. Decadence gives way to decay. Time filled with pleasure surrenders to the realization of time wasted.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring each of us to a place where we are faced with a choice. God’s omnipresence made manifest through the Holy Spirit ensures that everyone is given the opportunity to come face to face with the reality of life: call it conviction. It is the work of Jesus that gives us the opportunity to respond to this reality with something more than just guilt or regret: call it salvation. And it is the will of the Father that created the conditions for conviction and salvation in the first place: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Why? God, our Father, deliberately made us in His image, and so He could not abandon us without at least providing a way back home; a path for the prodigal; a way for the wayward; Love bleeding down the cross and into our lives.

The song “I Surrender” says about Jesus: “You came to earth in search of me. For I was lost, but now I see. You are worthy. A crown of thorns upon your head. A perfect life, yet blood was shed. You are worthy.” Our response? To become a child once again and embrace the wonder that is God. To explore and learn all His ways, be mesmerized by the stories we find in the Bible, and allow ourselves to be enchanted by the words of Jesus as he demonstrates what true love is. From that place, and that place alone, we are left but to sing: 

 “I will go where you want me to go. 

I will live how you want me to live. 

I will say what you want me to say. 

I will love how you want me to love. 

I just want to follow you, 

I’ll do whatever you would have me do. 

I surrender.”

We hope this 3-day devotional has been an encouragement to you. Click here to listen to our new album, "The Way," on all major platforms — featuring the songs highlighted in this devotional!