Not My Will

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

(Matthew 21:6-9)

As the crowds yelled their adoration at Jesus (for who and what they wanted him to be), the disciples must have been grinning from ear to ear, thinking that this amazing movement was finally going somewhere big - and they were going with it! Jesus would follow this event by making a scene and a mess at the temple - refusing to explain his actions to the chief priests. Exhilarated by this on-a-mission Jesus, the disciples left the Passover meal to accompany Jesus as he went to pray. In the garden called Gethsemane their expectations would be turned upside down once again - a betrayal, an arrest. While they had always endeavored to be about

God's business, they were never really sure what that meant. Now the disciples watched, dumbfounded, as the embodiment of Hope, Love and Peace was taken away.

If we celebrate with the adoring crowds shouting praise, and we stand with the disciples in bewilderment when life throws disappointing, painful, curve balls, we must also kneel with Jesus and cling to the will, the purpose, and the plan of God - wherever it leads.

No need to linger, there's no going back.

Just a misty-eyed glance,

To morn, to remember, to laugh.

On we go, trusting in the One with whom we walk.

A glance back at the road - paved with palms and cloaks -

as we journey forward into the uncertainty of a promise

and a nearly

extinguished

hope.

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:36-39)