I think maybe the cure for impatience may be unrelenting, unavoidable, and consistent obstacles to progress. For me frustrated impatience comes when unexpected obstacles are intentionally, or unintentionally placed between me and a goal. However, when they are consistent and unrelenting they can hardly be unexpected. Suddenly, it’s just par for the course. For those golfers out there, making par is doing pretty good.

I heard a story about a strapping European man who was trekking in the Himalayas. He came upon a little old lady who seemed to be carrying a pretty heavy load and he decided to give her a hand. She welcomed the help but when he lifted against the load it didn’t budge. He couldn’t lift it! The little old lady just smiled big, lifted it to her back, and got back on her way.

There are some factors about our semi-utopian society that cause us to lack many qualities we could have. Whether it is physical strength, or above average character, I wonder if we sometimes trade good things for bad. Anyway, I’m still glad to be here even if normal has become rolling blackouts, bone chilling cold, and unrelenting, unavoidable, and consistent obstacles to progress.

Genesis 32:28-29 – Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

“…you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” What a strange blessing. Everyone knows that Jacob quite violently wrestled with the angel all night but then to be blessed for it? Jacob later says that he saw God “face to face”. He wrestled with God in the form of a man? Perhaps Jesus?

We can guess all we want about whether it was an angel, God Himself, or Jesus but the blessing is intriguing. Seriously, without this incident would you think I was crazy to insinuate that wrestling with God is anything but foolish?

Jacob’s life was pretty strange from our perspective. He was determined, driven, and probably pretty stubborn. Gosh, ya know he labored 14 years just to get the woman he wanted? He was not a preacher, in fact his name means “he deceives”. He deceived his father into giving him the birthright he cunningly “bought” from his brother for a bowl of stew. What did God like about this guy? He blessed him at every turn but from a human stand point he sure didn’t seem to deserve it. In fact from my churching pretty much everything Jacob did would be frowned upon.

I’ve thought a lot about Jacob and realize that maybe God isn’t looking for more slaves to do His bidding. He is Holy and must be worshipped above all else. I just wonder if that rules out the possibility of a little wrestling. One thing Jacob did do in his stubbornness, he committed to his goals, and being blessed by God was top of the list. Maybe that is what pleased God. He certainly didn’t have to entertain Jacob all night if He chose not to. However, to wrestle with him Jacob must have drawn quite close to God. It could be that very possibility that keeps many of us from getting too close to God.

If we wanna be like Jesus we must be close to the Father. If we wanna be close to the Father we will likely have to lose our church engrained preconception that that would be warm, fuzzy, neat, and clean. Maybe being close to God the way God wants to be close to us is exactly that, a wrestling match. We can only “overcome” in a struggle with God if He chooses to allow us to. I think tenacity is high on God’s list of virtues. It certainly doesn’t always seem virtuous, but in the long run … well, most of the time the tenacious are the only ones that make any long runs. The rest are just tourists.

tə-ˈnā-shəs
persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired

God, each day may we overcome. Not just evil, but let us be so close to you that we may wrestle together to carve a plan together. You know where we are going, and You know how we should get there, and now let our fellowship be so close that our hands are interlocked and our wills collide and as the dawn comes we have found agreement and you are again glorified. Might we be that close? Is it possible? May we see you face to face and live? Father be glorified!

For the last few days a neat thought came (IMO) to my mind. Abraham didn’t have a gospel to carry with him, but God told him to go and he went. By simply the merit of his success and dealings with others he glorified God. Until the day he died his act of faith had produced just one son and he died long before his offspring became like the sand.

We sometimes go for a very long time wondering if we are bearing fruit. We may never see the fruit of our toil. Yet it seems that for God it is the obedience that matters most and we can be sure that the fruit will come. Just like God’s word doesn’t return without bearing fruit neither do those obedient to His call. So maybe that obedience should be a priority over bearing fruit. Bearing fruit is incredibly important, but the path to bearing fruit is nothing but obedience. Our grand schemes are of little consequence. In fact we know that unless God builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

Lord help our labor not be in vain.

-ICA