Why does my life feel like one trial after another?

What does Christ say? Unless the seed dies in the earth, it bears no fruit. You and I are called to be put to death in this life, so that we can have life for all of eternity. You and I are called to be put to death so that we can bear the fruit of repentance, so that our children can taste of pure faith. You and I are called to be put to death so that we can become a strong plant with deep roots and we can weather the trials of this present life. All of this putting to death is our salvation.

If you say to me, Father, I feel like I'm being put to death, I feel that the trials of my life are too much for me, I feel this, et cetera, et cetera, and I hear it all the time, I always rejoice, because I go, that is the path of salvation. The other paths, when the suffering happens, what do they do? They leave. They go and seek out the pleasures of the earth, they turn away from Christ, they go embrace worldliness. Those who stay in the fight, who stay in the trials, undergo the suffering and the purification, as Father Vasileios says, until the faith is brought forth in their soul and they are able to mystically know Christ on a very deep and intimate level. I pray for all of you that we would all experience this putting to death incrementally, with the trials that we don't even ask for, the trials that come to us that we don't even want, and yet they are for our humility, for our salvation, for the putting to death of the old man, so that we can live truly for Jesus Christ, which is eternity of salvation.