Anxious?

Being full of pain, Jesus prayed even harder. His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Luke 22:44 

 

Have you ever found yourself wide awake at 0200 because your mind is anxious about upcoming events?  Everyone else in the house is sleeping and your mind is clanging like a church bell falling down a mountain.  No matter how hard you try to calm your mind, nothing seems to work.  

For the last 10 days, I have been involved in a sleep study.  While that sounds simple enough, my mind was wide awake with anxiety.  For one thing, the apparatus I had to wear was extremely uncomfortable and the only way I could keep it from slipping out of place was to lie on my back.  Well.....I found out way back when I had heart surgery that I cannot sleep on my back!  Wanting to do well in this study, my anxiety levels increased because I could not sleep with this conglomeration of devices which was supposed to measure how well I slept.  Fail!

The other part of the study involved putting a rather short strip of sensors under the fitted sheet and I had to position myself so that my heart was on the strip.  Sounds easy enough.  Did I mention that I am not a "still" sleeper?  I tend to roll over every so often.  Again, to my dismay, I found that I apparently had rolled off this strip several times during each night of the study.  Again....FAIL!

Now, I am in NO WAY comparing my minor issues with the stress and anxiety that Jesus dealt with.  Jesus was under so much stress that His sweat was red like blood.  Jesus actually was experiencing Hematidrosis which is a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress.  Now THAT takes a lot of stress!

And yet, Jesus prayed through it and didn't insist God change His mind or plans because Jesus knew what needed to be done.  Jesus set the example for us when dealing with anxiety.  Take your anxiety to God and ask for His help.  And if necessary, KEEP ASKING!