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To Drink the Cup
Ann Bendall
A severely incapacitated client with whom I once worked always impressed me with his ability to cope with incredible pain. He had exceeded the specialist's expectations in his recovery to date and, a tall, fit, and stately gentleman, you would never suspect this person's numerous disabilities.
One day, when discussing his pain tolerance, tears came to his eyes as he advised, "every time I feel pain, I remember that poor guy, and think to myself, 'this is nothing in comparison.'" He was referring to being a helpless witness to an incredibly barbarous torture and death of a person approximately thirty years earlier. That person became an inspiration, motivating him to regard any and every injury he had sustained as insignificant in comparison. And this strategy was effective in enabling him to have a quality of life that defied medical prognosis.
Jesus on the cross, his head bowed, blood pouring from his feet and hands, and the wound in his side, was once the image I would recall (when I was not drowning myself in too much self-pity) and, like my client, I would think, 'this that I am going through is absolutely nothing in comparison.' But the experience of the cross was inconceivable to me, with my major disappointments being born mainly of destroyed dreams, or rejection from brothers and sisters, in contrast to physical pain.
Then I read The Urantia Book, and my inspiration when times are tough became the Garden of Gethsemane. (1969)
The midwayers use highly emotive language in describing Jesus' emotions and thoughts in the Garden, such as "the trial became more appalling;" "he endured great anguish and suffered untold sorrow, for the perspiration rolled off his face in great drops;" "he dreaded to leave them (apostles);" his "human heart longed to find out whether there might possibly be some legitimate escape from this terrible plight of suffering and sorrow;" "His soul was tortured by baffled love and rejected mercy. It was just one of those awful human moments when everything seems to bear down with crushing cruelty and terrible agony.;" "private loneliness, public shame, and the appearance of the failure of his cause. All these sentiments bore down on him with indescribable heaviness;" "he was isolated from his family in the flesh; one of his chosen associates was betraying him. His father Joseph's people had rejected him and thereby sealed their doom as a people with a special mission on earth."
I have no doubt that any adversity I may experience in life will pale into insignificance when compared to that which my inspiration, Jesus of Nazareth, went through!
"And, with dignity and courage he strengthened his mind by the strategy I call "creative imaginings" (but I'm sure the revelators would call something else). By using his human mind, he went back to the days of his childhood and to his early work in Galilee. At the time of this great trial there came up in his mind many of the pleasant scenes of his earthly ministry. And it was from these old memories of Nazareth, Capernaum, Mount Hermon, and of the sunrise and sunset on the shimmering Sea of Galilee that he soothed himself as he made his human heart strong and ready to encounter the traitor who should soon betray him."
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