Wrestle with life, then grow and learn

Wrestle with life, then grow and learn
Published: Friday, February 19, 2010 9:11 AM US/eastern
By NATHAN DAY WILSON

Wrestling with life, while always difficult and sometimes traumatic, is both unavoidable and, more importantly, necessary because wrestling with life helps us develop vision in life as well as expectations. Wrestling with life gives us insight as well as experience. We grow in compassion and in character. Wrestling with life — difficult and scarring though it is — transforms us and enables us to transform.

Wrestling with life is of the essence of life. In the process, we learn things about ourselves and we come to understand some things about God as well. God gives life, and in the giving allows us to be co-creators, full participants with the chance to make decisions, and part of making decisions is taking charge of our lives.

Wrestling with life drives us to find God within us and God in the darkness that surrounds us. Think about that for a moment. Some of us hesitate to say that God is within us, maybe because we think it sounds like we are puffing ourselves up, elevating ourselves above others, showing off and so on. Others hesitate to say that God is in the darkness that surrounds us, as though the darkness is only the absence of God.

But instead, a lesson from the story of Jacob wrestling in the dark, a lesson I think God would have us know is that wrestling with life helps us find God within and God in the darkness that surrounds us.

Here’s how Rumi, a 12th-century poet, put it:
I saw Grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet, does it not?”
“You've caught me, and now you've ruined my business," said Grief. "How can I sell sorrow when you know it's a blessing?”

There is beauty in the dark valleys of life. We call it hope. We call it spiritual growth -- grounded in the ability to remember a difficult past, either our own or someone else’s, that became new life more than we could ever imagine. Our difficult pasts — our times of scuffling and scrapping, rumbling and wrestling with life — prove to us that whatever it was that we ever before thought would crush us, would trample us, would completely paralyze us has been survived.

And if that is true, then we can survive and grow through whatever we are wrestling with now.

Not Being Distracted

Can You Hear Me?

The master of ceremony bragged on the elementary-aged award recipients: their concern for the environment, their vision of a recycling program, their stamina to make the vision a reality. He called their names. Wild applause, some standing, pictures flashing. But only one recipient appeared.

When the emcee repeated the second name, there was muffled laughter when someone said, “Em, he’s in the john!” Apparently the little boy just couldn’t hold it any longer. This was his big moment, his chance to shine, his opportunity. His name was called, his response was anticipated, but he was in the john!

I wonder how often I am “otherwise occupied” when God calls my name. Something God wants to teach me, something God wants to show me, something God wants to give me - even bigger than a community award – and I am, well, distracted. For what is God calling my name?

For example, lately God is teaching me how fragile life is, showing me how important relationships are, giving me the gift of faith in the midst of struggle and calling me to more focused ministry.

How about you? What is God teaching, showing, giving your right now? For what is God calling your name? I don’t pretend to know the answers for you, but I am always eager to discern the answers with you.

Please contact me for opportunities to talk.

It’s your big moment. God is bragging about you. God is calling your name. So, try not to spend it in the john!

See you soon at the place where God teaches, shows, gives and calls-

Nathan