Think about this: the cross was a means of terrible, ignominious defeat. But this sign of defeat has become the means of victory. There is no defeat or worldy despair in which Christ is not present. He is the Lord of Failure. He has taken on all of our mis-shapen, twisted disappointments, and through Him not even unrequited love, not even abandonment, not even meaninglessness can triumph. What triumphs is the cross – and the cross is the persistence of love in the midst of annihilation and death.