Managing Distress

What helped Jesus through the agony of the cross was concentrating on the good that lay beyond it: “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and disregarded the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). Successfully negotiating that extreme experience qualified him to “sit down on the right hand of the throne of God.”

This concluding event in Christ’s ministry contains many other things that translate into similar circumstances we face daily. The joy of having a new little one helps through the process of bringing that baby into the world. Anxiety about a dental procedure or surgical experience connects with the realities these emblems renew in us each time we observe them in remembrance of him, of what he did, and how he managed to do it.