Reflection for Saturday, July 30th 2011

Do you know the story of Jacob? He wrestles through the night with the angel of Yahweh and he begs the angel for a blessing (Genesis 32:23-32). And what does the angel of Yahweh do? He strikes Jacob on the hip and wounds him—and for the rest of his life he limps. What an unexpected and unwanted blessing! And then the angel of Yahweh says, “Henceforth, you will not be called Jacob but you will be called Israel because Israel means ‘he who struggles with God wins’” (Genesis 32:28). It becomes the very name of the whole Jewish people.

When we struggle with God we always lose, and only later do we know that such losing was, in fact, winning. That is what we mean by “falling upward.” Wrestling with God, with life, and with ourselves is necessary. The blessing usually comes in a wounding of some sort and for most of us it is an entire life of limping along to finally see the true and real blessing in our life.

Some people who have suffered at a very young age get there when they are still chronologically young. And some old people are still in the first half of life, having neither struggled with wounds nor received any deep blessings.