When you fail, with no recourse: there you will find God. Wisdom is in the house of mourning, not of mirth [see Ecclesiastes 7:4]. It is doing the thing you least want to do, and to do it over and over: in that is the good that comes from above, as one might have when one loves his enemies. For true faith is known in suffering, in the road you would not prefer to take; Jesus Christ proved that Himself when He took up the cross. If it is convenient to you, where then can you say you have been tested? If there is no risk to take, where then is faith? If you do not know pain, how can you understand the cross? Jesus Christ came not to conquer the world, but to be betrayed, tortured, and killed. We must, if we are to be followers of Him, expect similar treatment.

One might see that if things are going one’s way, that is when to be aware that perhaps the rug will then be pulled from under one’s feet. For just before He was crucified, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem amid the exultation of the masses. But how God works: as Paul said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” [Romans 8:18] And that goes for whatever the world can muster up. Such the ultimate failure for a messiah — death in humiliation — in this way, the whole of the Earth was saved. When Jesus Christ loved His enemies enough to give himself into their hands, when His fate was sealed: this was when God took the greatest of action. Look, and see: this was when we all won.