The Life of Stewardship to which Christ calls me is an upside down world.

• Darkness is Light
• Sorrow is Joy
• Suffering is Glory
• Death is Life

Jesus makes this all so very clear in the Sermon on the Plain recorded in Luke 6:

BLESSED are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God...
WOE to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

BLESSED are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied...
WOE to you who are well-fed now, for you will be hungry.

BLESSED are you who weep now, for you will laugh...
WOE to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

BLESSED are you when the people hate you, and when they exclude you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and jump for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For their fathers used to treat the prophets the same way...
WOE to you when all the people speak well of you; for their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way.

To embrace a cruciform life is to embrace what seems like woe in this world in order to be blessed in His Kingdom. The Apostle Peter was appalled by Christ's intention to ascend the cross. "May You be spared this! This should absolutely not happen to You!" Those words are satanic. They are words from the mindset of a blinded humanity that cannot see things as they are in God's Kingdom. This is the essence of what it means to live as an enemy of the cross: to have perishable things as my end-goal, to serve my appetite, to set my mind on the temporary things of this earthly existence. "Eat, drink, and be merry...and put off dying until another day."

I am perhaps a bit more clever than St. Peter. I would heartily agree that it's a good idea for Christ to ascend His cross. What I would object to, however, is that I  should actually follow Him. "May I be spared this! This should absolutely not happen to me!" If not in my words, then certainly in my actions I see this poisonous seed bearing fruit. I would rather not make myself poor when it's so easy to be rich. I would rather not make myself hungry when it's so easy to be more than satisfied. I would rather not consider the things that make me weep for myself and this fallen world when I could be enjoying a good laugh with this fallen world.

My Savior will never force me to follow Him. It is always an invitation. He will allow me to continue to enrich myself in this world, to feed my appetites, to laugh and enjoy the pleasures offered to me in our extraordinarily lavish society. But in the end, all of these will fail me. Death will come and remove my ability to indulge myself, preserve myself, govern myself.

If, however, I embrace the cross and willingly die to this world in order to live with Christ in His Kingdom, if I choose to suffer with Him that I might glory with Him, then I have begun the journey toward true Life that cannot fail.