UN/Broken - Day 32

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Matthew 26:42

Jesus is now becoming more centered and moving to different religious coping strategies. Rather than pleading for God to miraculously take away the coming suffering, he moves to what psychologists of religion have termed collaborative religious coping and active religious surrender (Pargament et al. 2000).

Collaborative religious coping is “seeking control through a partnership with God in problem-solving” (Pargament et al. p. 522), and is characterized by statements such as “I try to put my plans into action together with God.”

Active religious surrender is “an active giving up of control to God in coping” (Pargament et al. p. 522), and is illustrated by assertions like “I do what I can and put the rest in God’s hands.”

A longitudinal study of the later effects of various religious coping styles found that collaborative religious coping led to the greatest spiritual growth and best resolution of spiritual struggle (Wilt et al. 2019). However, active religious surrender also resulted in later spiritual growth and struggle resolution, although not as strongly and consistently as did collaborative religious coping (Wilt et al.).

Jesus’s Gethsemane religious coping strategy examples are good to learn from.