Reclaiming the cross

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

Eugene Peterson, in the forward to Embracing Brokenness:

It's odd that a religion that carries the cross as its central symbol should require a crash course in suffering. But it does. Oh, how it does. We have somehow ended up with a country full of Christians who consider suffering, whether it comes from a broken body or a broken heart, a violation of their spiritual rights. When things go badly in body or job or family, they whine and complain endlessly. Sometimes they protest vehemently. In between complaints and protests, they seek out the company of those who anesthetize them with soothing words and soft music. They have no difficulty finding such aestheticians-pain-killing spiritualities are a glut on the market. The only cross they seem to have any acquaintance with is a piece of cheap jewelry. Can anyone get their attention long enough to convince them that suffering must not be avoided, but embraced; that brokenness does not diminish a life of faith but deepens it?