Helping Others Cope

    I believe Jesus’ greatest disappointment   was not the hostility of the religious rulers, nor even the arrest, mockery, crown of thorns, scourging, and crucifixion, but the fact He had to face it alone.  It had been prophesied of Him in Psalms 69:20, “Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”  One of His disciples betrayed Him, and another denied Him.  Others of His disciples fled into the darkness.  We sense the sorrow in His heart as He laments in the Garden of Gethsemane, “What? Could ye not have watched with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40).    

      It is difficult to cope with the struggles, temptations and trials of life, but it is most difficult when we must do so alone. One help is to help another bear his or her burdens.  We are to “rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15).  Helping others cope with life will enable you to better cope with life yourself.