What Is Your Cup?
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Matthew 26:36-39
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." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." 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."
Nowhere else in the scripture do we see the humanity and divinity of Jesus so clearly as in this moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. As I face difficult circumstances in my own life, this scripture is a great source of comfort to me. Jesus knew what was facing him. His “cup” in the next hours and days would include a betrayal by Judas, desertion by his disciples, a denial by Peter, an unjust trial, public torture, and the painful death on a cross. As any “human” he did not want to go through this emotionally and physically painful experience. I am heartened in my own faith to see Jesus ask for consideration of deliverance from these horrible circumstances. But He set the ultimate example of remaining faithful in difficult circumstances when He prayed “not as I will, but as you will.”
In our lives as health professionals, we often face difficult circumstances. Certainly, in our training experience to prepare to be health professionals, we face many of these challenges.
In my third year of medical school, I was assigned to a team with a resident who enjoyed harassing medical students. I had recently completed a rotation on the internal medicine service that was challenging and left me with a shaken confidence in my abilities. A few weeks into my surgery rotation, I didn’t think I could take it much longer. I began to question that I was in the profession God wanted me in. I even prayed for him to show me the way out of medicine into another career path. Thankfully, counsel from a Christian friend moved my prayer to being able to say “not as I will, but as you will.” I am grateful God did not remove my difficult circumstances, “my cup”.
Lord, help me remain faithful in hard times.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
