(Jesus) threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want but what you want.” Matthew 26:39

We all will go through a time of deep sorrow in our lives. Jesus was not exempt from deep sorrow either. As we peer into this late-night garden scene, we see that he doesn’t want to drink the cup. He doesn’t want to go to the cross. Jesus is deeply honest in his prayers.

I think that this dark prayer in the garden illuminates for us a profound paradox about Christian praying. Praying your doubts, your tears, your anger, and your desperation is not a sign of a LACK of faith; it is an ACT of faith.

These words give us a vocabulary to yell for help to the living God when we are in the middle of our troubles, vulnerabilities, anger, and confusion. The garden prayer gives us words to speak to God smack in the middle of our messy lives.

I invite you to kneel before God and turn your pain and your tears into prayers.

Jesus expressed his honest desires and immediate desires—let this cup pass. But then he expressed his deepest desire—Your will be done. And as followers of Jesus, he leads us to learn how to do the same.

I know I needed to pray this garden prayer this last week as I attended my 42-year-old niece’s memorial service in Tacoma, Washington.

At Carly’s memorial service, there were probably close to 600 people in attendance. The eulogy was beautifully written by her twenty-year-old daughter, Clair. One of the things shared in that eulogy was that when Carly was in 2^nd grade, she became a Christian and was baptized. Unknown to her parents, she took her baptism certificate to school for show and tell. She stood in front of her entire class and showed the class her certificate and told them about being baptized.

The pastor shared a gospel message. And as he closed his sermon he talked about how, when Carly was graduating from the 6^th grade, she wanted to give a gift to her teacher and so she wrote her a letter. In the letter, she said that the best gift she could give her was to tell her about Jesus. So, Carly told her about Jesus and how she could become a Christian. The pastor read the letter to all of us. When he was finished Lynette leaned over to me and said, “The pastor should have skipped the sermon and just read the letter.”

Soon after that, they played an audio recording of Carly singing the song 10,000 Reasons.

Then the last verse came, and Carly sang,

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still, my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

My tears were flowing. At that point, I was overwhelmed by grief. My father was seated behind me, and I stepped out into the aisle, turned to him, got close to his ear, and said, “I’m not very happy with God right now.”

I was reading this text over and over this past week and it occurred to me that I needed this garden prayer. I needed to take my cues from Jesus and follow him into that garden, to be honest with God and trust in his good, good heart.

I’ll bet that you do too.

I think that is why I could tell my earthly father that I wasn’t very happy with my heavenly Father last Saturday. I have learned to pray what’s in my heart, not what ought to be in my heart. And I learned that right here in this dark garden.

Would you follow Jesus into your Gethsemane?

Here’s Carly’s letter to her 6th-grade teacher.

Dear Mrs. Masino,

This present that I have given to you may be nice or fun (I made it all by myself) but I’d like to share with you the most precious gift ever known to man, a gift I experienced over four years ago.

In January of 1988, I became a Christian by asking Jesus Christ to become my personal Savior forever. He died on the cross to pay for my sin and whenever I know I do something wrong, I ask Jesus Christ to forgive my sin because He is the one who died for me and rose again to prove He was the Savior of the World. I have found a scripture verse in the Bible that explains this.

          “In (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin.”

Redemption means to be freed from the punishment and sin.

When I received this precious gift, I prayed and asked Christ to forgive me of all sin and that He would be the Savior of my life. Now I pray constantly to Him for strength, forgiveness and that I could touch those who are hurting.

Christianity is not a religion but a relationship between me and my Savior. People all over the world want peace to be on earth. I know the only way peace can be on this earth. If every person on earth received Christ as their personal Savior, there would be no more fighting or hate.

1 John 4:21 says “and this commandment we have from Him; that he who loves Christ must also love His brother.”

I am an ambassador for Christ, and I am supposed to tell the world about Jesus Christ and His precious gift to us – His death and His life. I hope you can understand the message in this letter. I love you Mrs. Masino and I felt that God wanted me to share this precious gift with you. He has always been a friend and a Savior, and I know I will live eternally with Him because that is what heaven is about – Jesus Christ.

                               Love,

                                      Carly

And so, friend, hear the good news, that because of Jesus, we can trust that God is good and at work in our lives even when we can’t see how God is at work in our lives.

Bless the Lord, o my soul, o my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before, o my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name