Launching a new console is not easy or cheap, and in order to remain relevant in the console marketplace a continuing price has to be paid… a price that Microsoft has learned the hard way. But as longtime hardware developers like Atari and Sega as well as newer companies to the party like Google became unwilling to pay the ongoing price of participation, Xbox doubled down and has continued to invest deeply in their commitment to the home console market every year despite the cost. While each iteration of their hardware has consistently sold at a net loss, the only path to the treasure that they are seeking is to see the road through to the end.

The act of “taking up our cross” and following the Lord involves more than just a one-time event of believing in Christ and accepting His grace… it is an ongoing, self-sacrificial journey that will continue for the rest of our lives. Each step we take as we carry our cross will compel us to shed the layers of selfishness that once defined us, and it is a process that is guaranteed to be uncomfortable… crosses are costly, not cozy. But it is in our active, daily choice to pick up a cross that we’d rather not carry that shows we’re truly following in the His footsteps… He would’ve liked a different option as well, but He chose to obey because the reward was worth it.

Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27-30, 33

And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:41-42

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