Monique M. Keller
Still without words, yet wrestling with might. How do two seemingly opposing actions make sense in the third wave of the pandemic in South Africa? Loved-ones passed on to the place we can’t see with our human eyes, and barely grasp with our clouded mind, but as believers and seekers of truth know that there is another abode.
The abode where we all go when all the rush is over, where the struggle between heart and mind ceases and make way for surrender. Body and soul part ways in this surrender. But what to do when the soul is seeking still, hoping to find rest and peace in another dimension?
Wrestle with all our might with the Creator of it all like Jacob once did with God.
“Then Jacob was left alone; a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.” Genesis 32:24
Where Jacob did not allow the Man to go.
‘And He (God) said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he (Jacob) said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”’ Genesis 32:26-28.
In the days when it makes little sense and the pain of uncertainty and loss is searing wrestle harder with God. Jacob wrestled to the point of deep pain; agony with a dislocated hip and said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” Genesis 32:26*
Being prepared to wrestle, a deep struggle with the Almighty, and being willing to take the deep pain when God touches the most sensitive parts – touches the hip, contorts it to the point of confusion. After confusion, disrupts the normality of the structures to the point of separation of a joint or a life. Where it feels unfamiliar and just wrong, and nothing makes sense…There at that point, if we can push the wrestling that far, further than we thought our human efforts can go…The shell keeping our hearts protected and closed can open up, let the light return and allow our eyes that are drenched in tears, see the purpose of our lives.
To praise the triune God and uplift our neighbours with love.
With love always,
Monique
