Wrestling with Giants

The Giants just need to run the clock, and keep the Patriots from scoring. Perhaps Scott will win his bet after all, and the Patriots will not finish a perfect, undefeated season...

Football has never been an issue of fascination for me. It's fun to play, and I actually understand the difficulty and pleasure in playing it. But, watching it does not hold the same fascination for me.

Really, men in tight pants knocking each other over? Yes, yes, I know, there is more to it than that. But, really?

Patriots now lead by 4 points. Things are heating up kids...

On to other topics...

A few days ago, I gave a talk on the role of women in ministry... often a confusing subject. I spoke to women about the Bible affirming their role in the Body as indispensable. I spoke to them about the Bible affirming female leaders throughout scripture, both Old and New Testaments. But I did not give them an easy answer to what roles women could or could not hold. And I am okay with that. In fact, I intended for the talk to raise questions that I did not answer. Not because I do not have answers for the questions. Not because I have not thought through the answers to the questions; in fact, I feel well-grounded in actually answering them.

One of the things which I have realized over the years, is that I cannot give an easy answer to the hard questions. Or even a hard answer to hard questions. I cannot persuade people of things to which they are not ready to be persuaded. To a certain degree, all I can do is provide enough evidence for them to draw their own conclusions. And don't get me wrong; there are times and places for giving hard answers and easy answers, without the "draw your own conclusions" part. In fact, there are a lot of those times. But sometimes we're too quick to give the "right" answer, without letting others wrestle through the issues on their own.

In the Old Testament, a man named Jacob (which means 'heel-grabber,' implying illicit means for gaining a reward) was renamed Israel (meaning, 'he who wrestles with God'). This was considered a really good, strong, honorable name. Israel became the name of God's people. And they were led forth in the strength of Israel, father of a nation. Jacob became Israel, because he wrestled with God. He would not have become the man that He was, had he not met the living God, and had a fist-to-fist wrestling match on the side of a river.

There are times in which we are not called to wrestle with truth... in which what we know to be true is presented to us on a silver-platter-easy-to-digest. Yet, profoundly, the lessons which we deeply learn are the lessons through which we have had to wrestle, in order to reach the our true conclusions. The process of wrestling is half of learning the lesson. Sometimes, we're too quick to want to give people the easy answer. To solve their dilemmas. To write off their struggles, or alleviate their questions. Yet sometimes, those questions-- that process of wrestling-- is fundamentally necessary to their ability to learn the lesson.

Do not be afraid to allow people to struggle with God... or with truth. The great news which we have is this: God wins! Hope wins! Truth wins!

... or in the case of the Superbowl, the Giants lay the smack down. Well done, men!