3 Florida United Methodist Review Online

Florida State students find joy in carrying cross

The procession carrying a 300-pound cross from Calvery, GA., to the new FSU Wesley Foundation prayer garden in Tallahassee drew a lot of attention from passers by. A baseball game in Tallahassee was Interrupted as spectators chanted "Jesus, Jesus" in response to music played and sung by some of the 200 people involved in carrying the cross.

By Michael Wacht

TALLAHASSEE — Carrying a 300-pound cross 25 miles was not how Florida State University (FSU) senior Chad Linville had planned to spend Holy Saturday, but he said the experience renewed his faith and gave him “the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.” Linville, a member of First United Methodist Church, Kissimmee, and FSU’s Wesley Foundation, organized the effort to move the cross from Calvary, Ga., to the Wesley Foundation’s new prayer garden in Tallahassee.

The project, called “Wesley Extreme,” began as an effort to erect a historically-accurate cross in the new prayer garden next to the foundation’s chapel.

Linville said his research revealed that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was approximately 10' tall, 7' wide and made of 6" x 10" cedar beams. Although they weren’t able to construct an exact replica because of the cost of the cedar used in Jesus’ time and the size of the beams available, Linville said the pressure-treated, yellow pine cross is “the right cross for the garden.”

The wood was delivered from a mill in Bainsbridge, Ga., to Calvary United Methodist Church in Calvary, Ga., where a friend of Linville’s wife is the pastor. The Saturday before Palm Sunday, Linville and friend Jim Finch assembled the cross, tightening the last bolt as the sun set.

The next hurdle was transporting the cross from Calvary to Tallahassee. Linville said he knew it wouldn’t fit in the back of his pickup truck, and transporting it on a truck didn’t seem appropriate, so he proposed the Wesley Foundation students carry it by hand as a “praise action” that “would be more meaningful.”

“As to why to carry it?” he said. “Because Jesus did.”

Linville soon found himself securing parade permits, police escorts, food and drinks, and escort vehicles for the trip. When he called the Florida Highway Patrol, he spoke to Capt. Kenneth Spears, a Christian who was “very enthusiastic,” Linville said. On his first call to the Florida Department of Transportation, he spoke to a woman who was a former member of the Wesley Foundation.

“Every place I turned, there was either a Christian or someone who wanted to know about Christ,” he said.

Overall, nearly 200 people, including 60 from the foundation, participated in the 11-hour trek, with between 12 and 15 carrying the cross at any one time. “Nobody wanted to get out from under it,” he said. “People would not stop carrying it.”

Children in passing cars smiled and waved at the procession. Motorists were encouraged to “honk if you love Jesus.” Passersby also joined in, including a homeless man and one man who left his car on the side of the road.