Today, I’m writing from one of my favorite places on earth. I’m nestled in at the base of the Teton mountains, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just outside of Grand Teton National Park. The iconic rugged peaks of the Tetons are looming above me and the wide flood plain of the Snake River stretches out before me. This grand backdrop has set a stage for moose, elk, and bear to all make their appearances. And the crisp mountain air is rapidly performing a full exchange in my body, pushing out whatever metaphysical baggage I may have been carrying with me from home, and resupplying me with a renewed breath of the Spirit.
I am blessed to have been invited to an event sponsored and hosted by the Hogenson Leadership Institute (HLI). I’m gathered with a collection of other faith, business, and civic leaders to connect through our stories and to be inspired in the common work we share. HLI exists “to further the legacy of Pastor John Hogenson, an exemplary life-long student of leadership, pastor, family man, and friend.” Pastor Hogenson led a number of large ELCA congregations before passing away from inoperable brain cancer. The institute seeks to be a legacy of his faith-inspired leadership. And from where I sit, they’re delivering on this promise.
I’ve spent much of my life exploring the ranges of the northern Rockies. I credit this remarkable landscape with helping to nurture the foundations of my understandings of God, God’s presence, and God’s activity in the world. And, if I would claim any past conflict with God, it’s here in the mountains that the most significant wrestling between God and me has transpired.
This coming Sunday, our focus text also features a wrestling match. An angst-ridden Jacob, uncertain if reconciliation with his brother Esau will be possible, finds himself alone, as if on a vision quest. “A man wrestles with him until daybreak…” the narrator surprisingly interjects, and Jacob enters into quite a fantastic new reality. God has found Jacob, carrying his crippling uncertainty about the future, and rather than offer comfort or counsel, God seems to pick a fight.
This story is a helpful reminder that God’s presence can be experienced in different ways and not always as the source of divine reassurance we might want or expect. Sometimes God’s purpose, it seems, is to challenge us, to test our commitments, or to be the counter to who we try to be. Today, I would encourage you to reflect on what or who you’ve been wrestling with lately. And to consider how, like Jacob, might God be trying to bless you in the process.
May God’s peace find you today. -Pastor Peter
Let us pray… God of blessing, even as we dig in and face that which surprises or challenges, help us to see you. Give us strength, patience, and endurance. May our struggles become our strengths. Amen.