I've been thinking a lot about Hebrews 12:2-3 which says, (Living Translation) "Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.  Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people, then you won't become weary and give up."

I even wrote a bog recently about Jesus giving up the glories of heaven to come to earth, which must have felt like a prison to Him after the vastness and purity of heaven.

I just read the following quotes which go right along with some of the thoughts I've been thinking.  They are both from "The Vision and the Vow" by Pete Greig.

Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher, said of Christ:  "His glory was that He laid aside His glory, and the glory of the Church is when she lays aside Her respectability and Her dignity and counts it to Her glory to gather together the outcasts."    Cited in Philip Yancey's Rumors of Another World p.198.

Your attitude should be the same as the Church, who
being in very nature Christ's beloved
did not consider her call to rule and reign
as a thing to be grasped
but became a simple nobody
indistinguishable from the poor
utterly human
nothing special.
And being found in appearance as a loser
she continued to choose downward mobility
to the ultimate dead-end 
of anonymity, failure, and even martyrdom.
Therefore
God swapped her overalls, covered in blood, mud and grime,
for the most beautiful bridal gown of all time.
He placed a ring upon her calloused finger
and gave her His name - the one about all others-
that when she walks down the aisle,
her crimson dress as white as snow,
her bridal procession should number thousands upon thousands 
from every tribe and tongue
their hearts overflowing with joy
as the trumpet sounds 
and the wedding feast begins
forever.