In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identity–climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older and begin to embark on a further journey, one that involves challenges, mistakes, loss of control, broader horizons, and necessary suffering that actually shocks us out of our prior comfort zone. Eventually, we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way. This message of "falling down"–that is in fact moving upward–is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world's religions, including and most especially Christianity.