Have You Reached Yet

"Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." (Luke 22:42)

One preacher imagined the hosts of heaven leaning over the rail of glory, watching the Son of God face down in the dirt of Gethsemane, sweating as though he were bleeding, and asking one another a single question. Has he reached yet, yet? Because everything hung on that one word.

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. That is the prayer, and it is honest, the prayer of a man who does not want to do what he is about to do. And then, nevertheless. Yet. Not my will, but yours. There is a kind of faith that only believes God exists and is good, and it is real, but it is the beginning. And there is a deeper faith, a desperate faith, that honors him, holds nothing back, and wants his glory known in the world more than it wants to be comfortable. In the moment Jesus said that one word, his heart caught fire again for his Father's glory, and the garden became the doorway to the cross.

So here is the question to leave standing in front of you. Have you reached the point of yet, yet? You may still be at the cup, and there is no shame in the cup; he was there too. But do not mistake the cup for the whole prayer. The prayer is not finished until it can say yet, and mean it, and go.