We get squeezed in certain times of life. Sometimes the squeezing is more dramatic than others.

Our job is deleted. We should have been prepared. We should have had more savings. We should have had a better resume.

Squeeze. Tighter.

Parenting is harder than we thought it would be. We are daily stressed because of the schedule, and because of situations that our kids find themselves in. We don’t know if we’re making the right decisions and we second guess ourselves at every turn.

Squeeze. Tighter still.

We sit by the phone and wait for the doctor’s office to call with the results of the test. Is it serious? Is it not? Will there be surgery? A treatment regiment? Medication for months and years to come? Will the insurance cover it?

Now we’re barely breathing. Panic ensues. Can’t get enough oxygen.

The vice grips tighten and we get squeezed. Now not to get too graphic here, but squeezing something – anything – makes something come out. You squeeze a piece of fruit and you get juice. You squeeze a blown up bag and you get a pop. If you were squeezed what would come out of you?

It’s during these moments that we find out what’s really inside. We get squeezed, and anger comes oozing out. So does frustration. Anxiety, too. Fear, no doubt. When we’re not being squeezed, we can fool ourselves into thinking that these traits aren’t really there. They’re long gone, driven out by our Bible studies and participation in church programs. But squeezing forces what’s deeply ingrained in us out through the surface.

But there’s hope.

There’s hope not because we can rid ourselves of these things, but because in the gospel God has given us the righteousness and the life of Jesus who knows a little something about being squeezed.

In fact, do you know what came out when Jesus was squeezed?

Not random phrases. Not incoherent babbling brought on by pain.

Psalm 22 came out of Jesus at the cross. Go ahead – look it up.

The words on His day of squeezing, as He was nailed to a cross and tortured, were the very words of God recorded for this very purpose centuries before. That’s where our hope lies. Not in ourselves, but in the One who on the day when the life was squeezed out of Him never resorted to or gave into fear and anger, but to His last breath trusted in the Word of God.