Suffering can be the deepest form of prayer. By taking your physical or emotional suffering, and uniting it to Christ, you're living for more than yourself. If you get a paper cut, rather than complaining and annoying everyone around you, use the stings as a reminder to focus on Christ. You're then turning a negative into a positive.
A crucifixion was reserved for major criminals. These criminals were hung on crosses, naked, to be stripped of their humanity. Christ took the ugliness of the cross, and turned it into the greatest symbol of love the world has ever seen.
Because the act was so beautiful, Catholics have been displaying crucifixes in churches, in homes, and even on jewelry ever since. We don't have a God who abandons us. But rather, he became flesh and showed us how to suffer first hand.
The greater our suffering, the more we can be an example of Christ to others. "What if I fall?" If you never fall, it means you have a light cross, or you're in denial. When Jesus carried his cross, it was about a half mile. In that time, he fell three times and needed Simon of Cyrene to help him carry the cross beam. God doesn't care that you fall, he cares about whether you get back up. You follow a crucified Lord, be ready to suffer!
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