The author, James Bryan Smith, takes many of the false narratives and skewed views that many people have about God and compares them to Jesus' narratives about God, His Father. After all, if anyone knows God well, it's Jesus.
How though, did Jesus view God as GOOD and BEAUTIFUL when he was on that cross? When he was sweating blood? When he was asking if there was any other way? How in that moment did he TRUST God?
Jesus cries, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done." (Luke 22:42)
He obviously does not want to endure the cross, but He does it because He trusts His Father.
The author defines a "cup" as anything that we struggle with accepting as our lot in life. Our cup is usually the thing that makes it difficult to believe God is good.
Jesus' "cup" was the cross. Some days my "cup" is singleness or single motherhood. Today my "cup" is my health--nothing big like a broken leg, just several little things.
It's easy to believe God is GOOD when things are good. But what about the times we wonder, "isn't there any other way?" "Can't you take this cup?
It helps to know, to really grasp, that Jesus UNDERSTANDS. The author states, "Like Jesus, I faced something that conflicted with my own desires."
He then proceeds to share Thomas Smail's interpretation of what Jesus went through in the garden of Gethsemane, and how he was able to trust God in the midst of his pain:
The Father that Jesus addresses in the garden is the one that he has known all his life and found to be bountiful in his provision, reliable in his promises and utterly faithful in his love. He can obey the will that sends him to the cross, with hope and expectation because it is the will of Abba whose love has been so proved that it can now be trusted so fully by being obeyed so completely. This is not legal obedience driven by commandment, but trusting response to known love.
The author closes with: Our relationship to the Father is a "trusting response to known love." Jesus knew he was loved by his Father and was therefore able to trust him through the pain. The reason Jesus could trust God in his darkest hour is because he had lived closely with his good and beautiful Father for all eternity. I now see how love that has been proved can be trusted even when things don't make sense. So when I encounter a world full of tsunamis and child molesters, airplane crashes and methadone-addicted moms, I don't try to force myself to say all is well. Rather, I say, "Jesus trusted his Abba, and I will also trust in the God I know to be good."
Choosing to trust God with my "cups" today. Not my will, but yours.
What is your "cup"?
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