A Cross to Bear: A Movie Review

A Cross To Bear is a story of two women’s journeys of courage to face into their wounds and brokenness and in doing so their lives are transformed.

Many of us shape our beliefs about whom we are and what life is all about from the experiences we have in our families. Erica is no different, except that her experience is of an absentee father a mother that teaches her that she should to use what we got to get what we need. Her mother teaches her that people are objects for use. Her mother tells her she will find happiness in life by making herself an object and using her body as a commodity to secure a “good man” which is defined by a man that has money.

These truths are used by Erica to make her way in the world. She uses short skirts and high heals to get herself that money-making man she was told to always dream for. For awhile she thought she was happy. When he dumps her and she finds herself pregnant and living on the streets, her life takes a turn for the worse. She realizes that now the outside of her life reflects how she has always felt on the inside, broken, sad and disappointed in life. Her world has come to halt as she walks the streets with her new baby.

We see her life hit its rock bottom when she passes out in an abandoned factory and while she sleeps the box in which her child is asleep is taken by some homeless men, filled with trash and set on fire for warmth. Joan brings Erica to a home for women in need of a second chance.

Erica keeps people at arm's length because she believes that if she lets them see who she “really is” they won’t like her. Joan tells her the things she has done in her past do not define her and reminds her of how far she has come and that her identity is not based on her failures. However, we see that Joan is not fully radiating love to the women around her. In fact, we see that she seems to be carrying a cross of her own.

After Erica is caught stealing bottles of alcohol from work and Joan discovers those empty bottles under her bed, Erica is told to leave the house. Erica screams that she needs help and wants to stop. She tells Joan that when you say you will help someone that means you must help them deal with their imperfections. This is when we see that Joan has her own cross to bear as she turns her back on Erica.

What happens next will inspire you to believe that nothing is impossible with God as the lives of these two women converge in an inextricable way. Erica reminds us, “We all have a cross to bear. The million dollar question is will you carry the weight or will you hand it over to God?”

This movie is a powerful testimony of how the crosses we bear can become the very vessels from which to radiate the healing power of love, mercy and forgiveness that come when we give them to Jesus Christ.

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