Why struggling and resting with God go hand-in-hand

and see http://disconnectedchristians.blogspot.co.uk/ 

There is a very strange story in the bible that is not told enough in Christian circles, in Genesis 32:22-32 — it tells of Jacob spending the night physically wrestling with a man who turns-out to be God, leading to God’s blessing and Jacob being re-named ‘Israel’ (meaning: ‘he struggles with God’). Consequently, we too should expect and welcome this struggle as a mark of our being chosen and blessed by him. Far too often, wrestling and struggling with God, is seen by Christians as a mark of weakness and a lack of faith, when more often than not, the opposite is true. This struggle, instead, indicates the committed engagement of someone who is critically reflective and questioning in her relationship with God. She is not prepared to submit to quick ‘solutions’ to conflict and difficulties which merely ape submission to God, but rather persists at wrestling with him, knowing that this brings her in closer contact with God and the many manifestations of his love with which he wants to bless her.

However — and this I believe is the experience at the centre of all our faith — as with Jacob, we should also expect, at the end of this struggle, to be incapacitated or silenced by God — by the simple touch of his hand. Put another way, we must also acknowledge the importance of trusting and resting with God, of us being still with him (as God instructs in Psalm 46:10), so receiving his blessing without resistance and struggle. It has taken me a long time on my Christian journey — indeed, far too long — to understand the profundity of this briefest of commands — and even now, I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I should and can learn. But, being still and yielding to the knowledge that God is God, inevitably brings an experience of calm and peace, and a wonderful, mysterious place of true belonging, and genuine communion with him.

In summary, if we don’t recognise and foster this basic tension between struggling and resting in the love of God, we are left with one of two bad outcomes undermining our personal and spiritual well-being — either a perpetual and unceasing conflict which threatens the peace and stillness with God and his blessing of belonging; or with a complacent ‘faith’ denying the deep connectedness with God derived from struggling with his unfathomable character and the difficulties that life inevitably brings. However, holding this tension we find authentic and deep communion with others, and with God, having always in mind, the ultimate goal of more fully accepting God’s love in our lives.

Finally, as a Christian, I also firmly believe that only because of the incarnation — God made one of us — can God address this tension wholly empathically. Indeed, Jesus shouts-out his most dreadful question to God his father, while dying a slow, painful death on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). This question demonstrates so starkly how the Son of Man — as Jesus often called himself — in this moment at least, felt abandoned by God, as well as, paradoxically, being his son. We, living in and through this paradox too, are, by God’s grace and love, able to share this title as Christ’s siblings. That is, through the forgiveness and power offered us by Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, we are able to also journey with him and experience God’s love and promise of joy and well-being first-hand; where he accompanies us on our journeys, and in our continual struggling and resting with God.

Steven R. Smith is Professor of Political Philosophy and Social Policy at the University of South Wales and author of ‘Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers’

Also visit his blog at http://disconnectedchristians.blogspot.co.uk/