Surrendered?

Are we so at ease in the West, as Christians, that we've patterned ourselves after the Greek muses, or Roman intellectuals by "thinking" and yet calling it meditating on the Word of God, to gain more and more understanding, and, yet, have missed Christ, and Him crucified, on our behalf? The One who shed His blood for our sins, willingly; the One who offered us life, now and eternal, who set us free from the stranglehold of death, and ultimate destruction; the One who is our benefactor, who gives us everything we need, even the discipline we resist, which causes us to have the peaceable fruit of righteousness, His image in us? And, if we turn our eyes to Him, seeking to know Him better, will we turn away, if to do so means to share in the fellowship of His sufferings? Do we seek a clean examination of Him through books, thoughts, and Divine revelation only? I know this hits me right between the eyes, and yet, the Spirit quickens.
Yes, He demonstrated healing and deliverance while He walked the earth showing His power, but, He also reflected His Father's love as He hung on the cross. Do we seek to know Him intimately? Do we know and have that kind of love? Look, at what He was willing to give up, as you must, to attain it: his physical, mental and emotional comfort, His reputation, His fleshly desires, and His life. He left Heaven to follow His Father's will, as we must, to follow His; to really know Him, and be connected to Him with agape love; to be One with Him, to be the answer to the prayer He prayed to His, and our Father, before He sacrificed Himself. (John 17:21)
When we say we want to "press into Jesus", do we realize we will press into His sufferings, too? That we are, in essence, asking for that? Is the pain worth the gain?
To know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings was Paul's desire.(Phil. 3:10) For the JOY set before Him, Christ endured the cross, despising the shame of it all. (Heb.12:2) Will we submit ourselves to suffering, too, knowing that on the other side results in knowing Him intimately, as we become like Him, or will we shrink back in our easy chair, with our sanitized study, and only know about Him, and everything else, avoiding the cross; the only place where He reveals and imparts His love, as we submit willingly to it?
But, we must ask for this path, which is the hard part. Thinking we've fully surrendered to Him, without acknowledging the resulting and promised pain, is to be deluded, and not surrendered at all. If we have retained our self-protection, we've retained our trust and faith in our selves, but if we, with sincere abandon say in our heart, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done," He will take us fully as His own, and fulfill His heart's desire of conforming us into His image, not wrought apart from much pain and suffering.
Will we agree to knowing Him, of being like Him, on His terms? If not, we'll be a fruitless vine. But, if so, Oh, the Glory!!!!!!