Just be.

What would you pray for if you knew that in just a few short moments you would be captured, tortured and eventually killed? My desperate prayer would probably sound something like this.... "HELP ME! SPARE ME!" Yup... I would most likely just pray for my life. Typical human thing to do, I guess.

Tonight I was reading the prayer of someone who was in this very same circumstance... only His prayer sounded vastly different than mine would have. Here is just a part of Jesus' prayer moments before He was about to be arrested:

"My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. And all of them, since they are mine, belong to you; and you have given them back to me, so they are my glory! Now I am departing the world; I am leaving them behind and coming to you. Holy Father, keep them and care for them- all those you have given me- so that they will be united just as we are." - John 17:9-11

I'm humbled, amazed and overjoyed by His prayer. He isn't praying that God would spare Him. Not praying that God would save Him from the impending suffering ahead. Nope. Instead, He's praying for His beloved friends. Asking the Father to "keep them and care for them." Wow. Yet another incredible example of Jesus' relentless love for us. Even in the moments before His life was about to painfully end, He was praying for us. Can you imagine a love like this? Jesus is asking that the Father keep His followers safe... and even more He is praying that they will be united as the Son is united with the Father.

So now I'm left trying to imagine a unity among Christians that resembles the unity displayed in the Trinity and it's making my head hurt! You know what Jesus says over and over again during His ministry on earth? Love. It's love that unifies us. An unbreakable, unrelenting, unmovable love for God that will feed our love for one another.

So here's the application: do I (we) love one another so much that there is even a slight chance that in life-threatening moment I (we) would think to pray for others? How about during our very-much-still-alive moments? Are we unified in this way?

Jesus is a radical... for all the right reasons. I love that about Him. So overwhelmingly perfect, trustworthy, and more than enough. I'm praising God tonight that He's much more concerned with my "being" than my "doing." He just wants me to be unified with the Father in love. He's not preoccupied with the "stuff" of ministry like I can be sometimes.

Jesus could have been like, "Okay... you guys, make sure to unplug the iron, feed the cat, and take out the garbage." (I'm not a heretic, just trying to make a point so go with me on this one...). Stuff could have very easily been more important than the people at a time like that. But nope. Not with Jesus... because He loves us for more than just what we can do. He wants us to be like Him, not just do stuff like He did. In fact, He promised that we would do far greater things than He did (for realsies)!

So tonight I'm reminded to just be. Be love, be unified with God, be at peace in Him. He thinks that much of us.