This week we witnessed athletics history being made when the Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge ran the marathon distance in under two hours. The thing is though, he didn’t just wake up that morning and decide to have a crack at it. It was the result of months and months of planning, preparation and training. All elite athletes train as a means of getting better. They test and push the limits, struggle and wrestle with their bodies so they can see where they are deficient; where they need to change and grow. They do so in a safe environment so they can practice and succeed when the time comes.
It is this idea of training that comes to mind in our reading today of the curious incident of the wrestling angel in the night. Jacob has always managed life through his own resources. He’s tricked his brother out of his inheritance and swindled a blessing out of his father. He’s duplicitously acquired his uncles flock, but his luck is about to run out. He has been told by God to return to the Promised Land where his brother is waiting for him with a small army, the same brother that has promised to kill him. This is a fight he cannot win on his own, but he cannot see this yet. It takes the struggle with God, against whom he cannot prevail, to make him see that some battles are beyond him as he is. To see that he needs to change and rely on God’s help to get through this one.
We can struggle with the concept of struggling against God (especially if you have a Calvinist background). Aren’t we meant to meekly submit to God? Yet it’s clear from this reading that God consents to struggling with us. God is prepared to come to us in our difficulty and be an opponent against whom we can test ourselves. God offers us a chance to rehearse the coming problem before we face it for real. Just as Jacob was changed by the struggle to become a humble and contrite person who begged his brother for forgiveness, so we are changed by our struggles with God. God offers us a sparring partner so we can develop, change and become the people God calls us to be. If we refuse to struggle with God, we give up a God given opportunity to grow. It is arrogant to think we can do life on our own terms. Part of our discipleship journey is growing through our struggling with God. Let us grasp it with both hands.