A wrestling match

We want life to be relatively easy, comforting, spiritual, and replete with signs and wonders, don’t we? We don’t want the shadow cast by murder, greed, suicide, war, famine, and homelessness. We may spend years ignoring how the latter questions the former, but when we reach the point where we can’t ignore it anymore, ah! That’s when we step into the role of Jacob.

In Genesis, we meet Jacob. He wants life to be relatively easy, comforting, spiritual, and replete with signs and wonders. But he, too, sees that shadow. He has participated in some actions that cast that shadow! He tries to ignore it but, by Genesis 32, Jacob begins his questioning. His very life and the lives of his entire clan hang in the balance, so imagine the depth of his question!

Whether or not you know the story (Jacob wrestles all night with “a man” whom he later realizes was God), three things are vital:

• When each of us comes to the point where we question life’s meaning, its purpose, and our place in it, with all its light juxtaposed with darkness, something similar to a wrestling match begins.

• This period of questioning (and the wrestling!) is not so much a dive into ideas and concepts as it is the beginning of a mature relationship with God.

• If we stick with it, we will not be the same.

Reflection

If you see your deep questions about life, about purpose, about suffering, about God as a wrestling match with God himself, how does this impact your view of the eventual outcome?

Prayer

God, I think I’m all alone when I agonize with these questions. Help me to realize you are right here, and it is good that we wrestle. May I have the courage and stamina to stay with you as you not only mature my faith but my outlook, my perceptions, my whole being. Amen.