Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

Whew! I just received a call with some vital and urgent information that prompts me to hurry to that matter. So I’ll be short here and trust that the unfolding of your day will be like the amazing unfolding of the beautiful flowers that I see everywhere in this spring season.

Love, Dad/Ray

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 in His humanity in anticipation of His divinely 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 too 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. Such DIFFICULT TIMES WILL COME. Period. Eliphaz recognized, “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.