Don't Avoid the Garden
In his anguish he prayed more earnestly,
and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
(Luke 22:44 NRSV)
Every now and then, I read something that pounds me between the eyes and changes my way of thinking about something. This is one. Don’t try to avoid Gethsemane. Don’t try to avoid the garden. Don’t try to avoid hardship.
No one wants to go through pain and certainly no one wants to go through a “Garden of Gethsemane” experience like our Lord Jesus endured. But often it is in the garden, lying on cold stony ground, that we receive our greatest blessing.
Even Jesus had to pass through the anguish of Gethsemane as it was God’s will for Him.
Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams,
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The garden lies. Strive as you may,
You cannot miss it in your way.
All paths that have been, or shall be,
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.
All those who journey, soon or late,
Must pass within the garden gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say,
“Not mine, but thine,” who only pray,
“Let this cup pass,” and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemane.
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
George Matheson described the garden experience beautifully in his book, Thoughts for Life’s Journey:
My soul reject not the place of your prostration. It has ever been your robing room for royalty. Ask the great ones of the past what has been the spot of their prosperity; they will say, “It was the cold ground on which I once was lying.” Ask Abraham; he will point you to the sacrifice on Moriah. Ask Moses; he will date his fortune from his danger in the Nile. Ask Joseph; he will direct you to the dungeon. Ask Ruth; she will bid you build her monument in the field of her toil. Ask David; he will tell you that his songs came from the night. Ask Job; he will remind you that God answered him out of the whirlwind… Ask one more - the Son of Man… He will answer, “From the cold ground on which I was lying – the Gethsemane ground.”
The hour of your loneliness will crown you. Your day of depression will regale you. It is your desert that will break forth into singing; it is trees of your silent forest that will clap their hands. The voice of God to your evening will be this, “Your treasure is hid in the ground where you were lying.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn said: “It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirring of good. Gradually, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through all human hearts. So, bless you, prison, for having been in my life.”
Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey Your Word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I may learn your decrees (Psalm 119:67, 71 NIV).
Your adversity and pain will become the bridge to a more intimate relationship with Him. He will come to you during these times if you let Him. Crises may try to crush you but God will use them to comfort, teach, and mold you further into the image of His beloved Son. Your period of despair and anguish will end, and, if you allow it, the experience can be the means by which God brings you to His greatest blessings.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28 NKJV).
