Trials

There are some things in my life that I just don’t want. Things that given a choice I would do differently.

Like my next door neighbors to the right. If it were up to me, I’d switch them out into a nice family who doesn’t party.

Or my dating life. If it were me, I’d have a bunch of really cute guys always waiting to ask me out.

I would get rid of the squirrel nest in the tree in my backyard that has become a hang out for all the squirrels in my neighborhood.

I’d live in the same city, but I’d totally eradicate the traffic problem.

And snow. Well, maybe not so much fresh white snow, but the dirty kind, and the cold.

There are some trials in my life that I just don’t want. Trials that I could live without.

I know they may be for my good. I see how God is using them to make me more like Him. I understand that.

But given a choice, well, call me weak, but I’d just live without that, thank you very much.

Jesus understood that sentiment very well.

He didn’t want the cross. He asked God to remove it.

Given a choice, I’m sure he’d just as well go around healing everyone, seeing people laugh.

But he also knew the necessity of it.

There is no permanent joy without the cross.

There is no freedom without the cross.

There is no life without the cross.

So he makes this absolutely astounding statement in John 18:11, as he’s being wrongly arrested and soon to be crucified. He says: “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me.

Shall I not.

It is after all a cup handed to me by my good and loving Father who never makes mistakes.

It is perhaps the key to my life, and joy, and freedom.

Not my will, but yours Lord.

Yes, even this cup.

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