“Rise, let us be going.” Mt. 26:46

In the Garden the disciples went to sleep when they should have been awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair.  The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair.  We say, well its all over and ruined now;  what’s the point in trying anyomore.  Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair.  But Jesus comes lovingly and says to us, in essence, “ Sleep on now.  That opportunity is lost forever and you cant’ change that.  But get up and lets go on to the next right thing.”  In other words, let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him.

There will be experiences like this in each of our lives.  We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them.  If we were never depressed we would not be alive, only material things don’t suffer depression.  If human beings were not capable of depression we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation.  If we are inspired by God, what is the next right thing?  It is to trust him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption.  Never let the sense of past failure defeat you keep you from your next right thing.