Just thinking...

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, a dangerous past time...I know. However, sometimes I can't help myself. You see sometimes I get to feeling sorry for myself. I know, just writing this down helps me to see how foolish I am. I have no reason to feel sorry for myself, I have everything anyone could ever wish for. I have a great family, I am in good health etc.. Yet, sometimes I catch myself having a "pity party". Do you ever catch yourself thinking that you are the only one out their going through the things you are going through. Maybe you don't, but I certainly do. To be honest, sometimes I really feel like giving up, you know, why must I always fight to do the right thing. It would be so much easier to simply give in. However, this week I read the account of Jesus praying in the garden, the trial and His crucifixion in the book of Mark. However, I saw everything in a a different light this time. Growing up in a christian home, it is so easy to take everything for granted, including the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. However, as I read the passages in Mark14, I realized how foolish I really was being. Here I was feeling discouraged over petty little things. I thought that no one understood what I was going through. Then I read of Jesus. As I read the passage, I began to underline everything that Christ went through just that night. He was betrayed by his friends, his closest friends were offended of Him. His best friends could not even pray with Him. At the time He needed He needed His friends most, they fell asleep. Then these friends forsook him and fled. The very people He had ministered to lied about Him. And all the while he held His peace. I can only picture myself, standing there. No doubt, I would have began crying, feeling sorry for myself, because no one understood me. I am sure I then would have begun to yell out that they were lying, and that they were just out to get me. But not Jesus, He simply held His peace. The very people He came to earth for, then condemned Him to death. I problems I had faced seemed so small when I compared them to all that Christ went though. And why did He do all that..for me. So that one day, when I was feeling down, I could look at the ultimate example and say He died for me, the least I can do is keep trudging along and live for Him.