Waiting in Anticipation

Tom Petty sings that: “The waiting is the hardest part”


Balzac said, “Our worst fears lie in anticipation”

The anticipation – the waiting – is often the worst part of anything we must endure. I know I can work myself up into quite a tizzy just thinking about having to go to the dentist, get blood drawn or having a shot, getting a medical test, getting my license renewed. Pretty much any event I know has the potential to be unpleasant. But most of the time I know it is something that needs to be done, so I brace myself and carry on.

This led my thoughts to Jesus in Gethsemane. Waiting for what was to come. Knowing full well how agonizing and brutal the events that were about to happen would be. And knowing the importance of them. Bearing the weight of all that on his fully God, but fully human shoulders. Knowing this was what had to be, there was no other way. 

I suddenly saw the story I had read many times from a new perspective.

“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”"  ~Luke 22:39-46

It makes anything we may look forward to with dread pale in comparison, doesn’t it?