Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

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25 April 2010

    Good morning, dear ones.

    Up about 2:30am.  I did my general routine, including a jog, which is also part of my prayer time.  Lots of discussion.  Now I'll launch this at just after 8:39am, and go jump in the shower before going to church.  What happens after that?  We'll just have to find out.

    Have a great day where you are.  Do your best to align yourself with His blessing.

        Love and prayers.  Dad/Ray

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25 April 2010
Passage: Mark 14:27-52
Focus: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”  Mark 14:34.

            These are the anguished words of Jesus to His three inner-circle disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We could never face the same set of circumstances as the one Jesus faces here.  We can only imagine what He must have been feeling as a man in anticipation of His pre-ordained time of torment, weighted down with the sins of the entire human race.  Nevertheless, you can be sure that, at some point in your future, you will face very difficult circumstances that will make you too feel “overwhelmed with sorrow.”  I believe this is an inescapable feature of our humanity.

            When I was a young schoolboy, I remember our teachers leading the class in occasional “fire drills” where we would practice how we would conduct ourselves in the event that a fire were to break out in the school.  There was a point of wisdom to that, even though it was most likely that a fire would never happen.  But just in case, we were ready.

            How many people practice “crisis drills” where they establish for themselves specific plans and procedures to prepare for meeting times of crisis?—those deep, dark, difficult times of feeling “overwhelmed with sorrow.”  That strikes me as wisdom too.  For it is not a matter of IF such a crisis would come, but WHEN it comes.  Such DIFFICULT TIMES WILL COME.  Period.  Eliphaz declares, “Man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7).

            In preparing to meet those hard times, Jesus, by His example, sets forth the best standard you could ever find. 

1. He sought the strength, support, and guidance of the Father in prayer. 
2. He enlisted prayer support from others. 

While His prayer partners kind of folded on Him in this instance, it remains a good course of action.