{"id":22095,"date":"2025-12-30T10:17:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=22095"},"modified":"2025-12-30T10:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:17:45","slug":"why-is-this-man-carrying-a-10-foot-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/12\/why-is-this-man-carrying-a-10-foot-cross.html","title":{"rendered":"Why is This Man Carrying a 10-Foot Cross?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Lauren Przybyl \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five years ago, Dan Beazley, a man who once thought Christians were \u201ccrazy\u201d had a calling. The country had just shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic and Beazley felt the Lord leading he and his family to a mission. The trouble was, he wasn\u2019t sure what<\/em> mission. He wouldn\u2019t get the answer until months later when his wife shared the story of Atlanta evangelist Joel Crompton, who had built a 10-foot cross and carried it over his shoulder. \u201cImmediately, it came over my spirit \u2014 this is what I needed to do. I knew what the mission was,\u201d Beazley told Deseret News<\/em><\/a>. Beazley completed the 10-foot, 65-pound cedar cross in the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n

The Michigan native began taking his cross through the streets of Detroit, using a set of wheels attached to the cross to help him drag it. \u201cPeople were giving themselves to the Lord, just because they saw the cross,\u201d he said. On November 30, 2021, tragedy struck Oxford High School in Michigan, when a 15-year-old opened fire on the school, killing four students and wounding seven others. Beazley and his cross attended the vigil, soon striking national interest as images of the large cross appeared on news sites, including Fox News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The attention soon inspired Beazley to take his cross nationally, going to sites of extreme tragedies where he stands silently with his cross. In December 2021, he took his cross to western Kentucky after a deadly tornado outbreak killed 89 people. \u201cIt was an amazing thing to pray with victims and survivors,\u201d Beazley said. \u201cIt was so apparent that this is what God wanted \u2014 for the cross to be seen.\u201d During his trips, people can go up to him and pray or just meditate at the cross, whatever they need.<\/p>\n

In the four years that he has been traveling, Beazley has taken his cross on 73 trips through 33 states, including Hawaii after the Maui wildfires. He picks his destinations based on a calling from the Lord and usually drives. \u201cMy wife says, \u2018No, you can\u2019t (fly). You have no idea the amount of people whose lives are touched just in the journey from home to where you\u2019re taking it,\u2019\u201d he told CNN<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>His cross has been seen at a number of familiar tragedies: Camp Mystic in Texas where flooding killed 25 campers and 2 counselors, Annunciation Catholic Church in Minnesota after a gunmen opened fire during a school mass, and the memorial service of slain Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Beazley said he gets an overwhelming feeling that brings him near to tears, letting him know which sites to bring the cross to. \u201cWhen that happens, I know that I need to go. I know that it\u2019s impossible for me not to go. There would be nothing that would stop me from going,\u201d he said. At Camp Mystic, he was asked to leave a cross behind for mourners. He commissioned a local carpenter to build a replica cross to remain at the site. \u201cThey needed it as the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While Beazley trips can bring attention to himself, he tries to draw it back to the cross and to Christ. \u201cThe tragedy isn\u2019t going away. But the community can certainly heal from it, and they can grow. \u2026 I believe that the cross, the presence of the cross, is just the beginning for a lot of them,\u201d he said. Speaking to Deseret<\/em>, he shared about what is most important to him. \u201cThe cross does most of the talking,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever people approach me, I know they want to talk about one thing \u2014 and that\u2019s Jesus. And that\u2019s what I like talking about the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five years ago, Dan Beazley, a man who once thought Christians were \u201ccrazy\u201d had a calling. The country had just shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic and Beazley felt the Lord leading he and his family to a mission. The trouble was, he wasn\u2019t sure what mission. He wouldn\u2019t get the answer until months later…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":22098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy is This Man Carrying a 10-Foot Cross?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A man once skeptical of faith now carries a 10-foot cross to tragedy sites nationwide, offering hope, healing, and Christ\u2019s love.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2025\/12\/why-is-this-man-carrying-a-10-foot-cross.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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