Becoming Untangled

     While reading in Matthew yesterday, I came across a familiar passage.  Knowing I had read and heard this story so many times before, I stopped and prayed.  I asked the Holy Spirit to shine His light on what I was reading...to make the familiar unfamiliar...to allow me to see Him speaking to me through this text.  
     Matthew 26:36-45 is about the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus is about to be betrayed and handed over to the ones who will kill Him.  He asks his friends to pray with Him, to be awake, to be aware.  They fell asleep.  Three times he found them sleeping.  The first time he found them sleeping He told Peter something that immediately caught my attention..."Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak"  (v.41). Here, the spirit and the body are connected...something I had somehow missed before.  One can be willing, but if the other is weak, then there is brokenness.  
     Last week, I had just read where the disciples asked Jesus which of the commands or laws was the most important.  He replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind"(Matthew 22:37).  Heart, soul, and 
mind...again, all connected.  Every living part of us is interwoven.  We cannot let one area 
weaken and expect the others to thrive.  Even if the spirit is willing, we will fall if the body is 
weak. If our soul thirsts, it will eventually break our hearts.  If our hearts are broken, our minds will begin to grow weary. We are one tangled mess.   
     Jesus warned his friends.  He told them to watch and pray to avoid falling into 
temptation, to avoid becoming tangled.  I was struck by the simplicity of this, yet how much 
my life has lacked these disciplines.  Watching has now become my focus.  Staying awake is a 
new discipline for me.  In every moment, good or bad, opening my eyes, waking up and 
watching  God.  Watching Him is seeing Him.  Seeing Him is, again, knowing Him. Knowing Him allows us to speak to Him through prayer...an expression of love, of trust.  Watching and praying lead to being loved and loving.  Focusing not on the weight of the burdens, not on the giant knot of tangles I have become, but just on Him being God.  Loving Him by surrendering my mind, my heart, and my soul to Him and only to Him.  Watching and praying as He untangles this mess in me.  Trusting Him as he begins to straighten me out.  Becoming one spirit, one body, one heart, one mind, and one soul. Becoming untangled.