In the movie The Lion King, young Simba and Nala start to wrestle and after about one second, Nala pins Simba. He tells her to let him up and attacks her again and, again, after about a second, Nala pins him easily. We sometimes read in the scriptures about how faithful men and women wrestle with God. You would think that wrestling with God could only ever end in an even much more embarrassingly short amount of time than when Simba got pinned by Nala. But Jacob, for example, wrestled all night with God. In order for God to wrestle with us for more than a nanosecond, He would have to come down much closer to our level. Why would He ever do that? For that matter, why would He ever allow us to engage with Him in such a combative and violent way? I believe that sometimes our faith can only reach fruition through struggle, and God is more than happy to help us work through our struggle by stepping into the ring with us. He can be the perfect opponent, letting us work and wear ourselves out and struggle mightily for mastery without ever placing us in harm’s way. In fact, I'm sure that God would much prefer that we work out our frustrations and our doubts and our demons by sparring with Him rather than by dragging our friends and family or even our enemies into the ring. Besides, if we can wrestle with God and come out of the experience without being totally annihilated, it really puts whatever problems we've been facing into proper perspective. If we can wrestle all night with the most powerful being in the universe and live to tell the tale, we can have the courage to face pretty much anything. But beyond helping us to develop the faith necessary to overcome our challenges, there is another important reason why God allows us to wrestle with Him. Sometimes there are truths and realities that we must face that will be very hard for us. Loved ones dying or becoming lost beyond our ability to save them, relationships broken up, careers ended, fortunes lost, debilitating sicknesses ravaging our own bodies or those of the ones we love - these can all be very bitter pills to swallow. Sometimes, the only way for us to accept these hard truths is to spend a night trying with all of our might to force the Lord of all creation to bend to our will. We can't pin God or coerce Him into deviating from His perfect plan for us, but by wrestling with Him and giving it all that we have, and then seeing that He still loves us and despite the incredibly painful reality that He is requiring us to face accepting that we still love Him, we can finally let go. Maybe it won't take one single bout. We might have to return to the mat day after day, week after week, even year after year, but one day we will have the faith to either move that mountain or to accept that the mountain is exactly where it's supposed to be. I'm so grateful that our Heavenly Father does not try to minimize or devalue our intense feelings, but that He allows us to get it all out in the ring. Whether we are grappling with Him in frustration or embracing Him in gratitude, always His loving arms are wrapped around us.
