Wrestling With The Lord

“I will not let you go until you bless me.” - Genesis 32:27
How could he? He knew he never had a chance. He knew it was always God who would prevail! How irreverent, above all, to “wrestle with the Lord!”
Ah, but this is Jacob - persistent, relentless, single-minded in his pursuit for blessing. Jacob never waited for his destiny. He made it happen. To Jacob, divine destiny should be met by human response. And he was named Israel!
Know what’s the most amazing of it all? The Lord allowing Jacob to wrestle with Him! It might have cost Jacob’s hip, but he surely developed some “inner muscles” in the process.
My favorite talk as a preacher is on the topic of surrendering fully to God. “Let God, let go!” Yet, how can I disagree with Jacob’s wrestling with God when I too have been “wrestling with Him all my life”?
“I will not let you go until you bless me.” I pray hard and offer at the Lord’s altar my dreams and my goals. But I also work hard in pursuing them. Persistently. Relentlessly. Stubbornly. Even if I know that it is always He who will prevail!
And you know what’s the most amazing of it all? The Lord allowing me to wrestle with Him!
So far, my hips are still intact, and I sure am developing some “inner muscles” too. Alvin B.
Reflection: Do you feel guilty when you “wrestle with the Lord”? Do you see that sometimes, for some divine purpose, He allows you to?
O God, teach me when to submit fully to you, and teach me when You allow me to “wrestle with You.” Amen.
Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz, martyr, pray for us.