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Christianity Today, July, 2008 |

WRESTLING WITH ANGELS

Here's to All the Losers

Why defeat at the hands of God is magnificent.

Carolyn Arends | posted 7/16/2008 09:02AM

If you like action-adventure, check out the Genesis 32 account of Jacob's Jabbok River wrestling match. Jacob is camped out and stressed out, awaiting a potentially dangerous confrontation with his estranged ...

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david

Posted: July 17, 2008 7:32 PM

I wish I knew something slick I could say in answer to some of these letters here (actually I don't care about being slick, just trusting God),except to say read Isa. 40:12-31 and take particular encouragement from vs. 27-31. When you feel so desparate and nothing seems to be happening, cry out to God anyway and don't let anyone just tell you to suck it up. Try to get with a Godly friend or 2 who will just stand with you;God can speak to you through prayerful people who love you; don't isolate-allow God to come to you not for the sake of your agenda or some pattern that He just has to answer to. He is the one who is sovereign, whom EVERYTHING is about and who gave his Son for you. Jesus felt that pain and as we are His, we share in that. Believe that He loves you-this is not always a mountain top experience-ask for grace and His peace in an immediate way;ask Him to help you understand His help. He is there for you; you will be OK and stronger for it. He is meeting you where you are.

TIMOTHY

Posted: July 17, 2008 2:26 PM

Stuff happens in life and it may not be your fault and it certainly might not be God's design. I contracted Meningitis ten years ago and I fortunately lived to tell about it however the Doctor's still have no idea how a person contracts that illness. I already had a healthy reverence for God and I already knew that my friends and family loved me so I really took very little from the experience at all. However I had a much smaller experience where I cut my foot with a weed trimmer and it got infected, I learned to wear my tennis shoes instead of my sandals after reading the safety warning on the box. Not every bad thing that happens to us in life is a revelation from God, not every bad thing in our life has purpose, and not every bad thing can be avoided by reading the instructions on the box first. Sometimes bad stuff happens without meaning, purpose, fault or design. However God can use everything to His Glory if it is in his will.

Christophe Mbilizi

Posted: July 17, 2008 9:48 AM

Hello, As an african poor, we are asking you a faver. people are doing the wrong things because they are not well informed about God willing over here, and they just open several churches but what they are doing are completly defferent from what they are doing out side. Would you please call some people and train ( teache) them how to keep chrestian spiritualy healthy... Kind Regards in Jesus name

George T.

Posted: July 17, 2008 3:34 AM


Sometimes a "no"from God is a way of telling us that we should try harder and more sincerely at our prayers. However it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind that God knows what is best for us.

brian

Posted: July 16, 2008 9:44 PM

what a great story. but why is it that we must come to some place that requires God to show up before we realize He is there anyway? does it take losing your voice,losing a wrestling match? does it take failure to find God? can we not experiance Him in the now? to everything there is a season. John Denver so aptly said"a wiser man that i might know the seasons of the heart". i have experianced God in the times of winning and the times of losing. my clearest picture of god usually comes in hindsight.

Pr. Borch, LtCol. USAR

Posted: July 16, 2008 7:19 PM


I feel that John, Amy and Lewis are closer to reality. Life is not prone to "devotional" quick fixes.

Lewis

Posted: July 16, 2008 5:01 PM


And what do you do with the answer is always no, when no one ever answers or responds to desperate prayers?

Susan

Posted: July 16, 2008 1:59 PM


Losing is our perception of ourselves, just as praying and getting a 'no' means we've been praying for our will, not God's to be done. Congrats on the accomplishment of failure. If nothing else it makes the victories that much sweeter.

John	Posted: July 16, 2008 12:35 PM

It seems that Amy is on to something, and that something is not good! Why is it that so many fundamentalist Christians seem to have to come to it from hitting rock bottom after some major personal crisis? Is that coincidence or perhaps psychological, when all else fails look to divine intervention? And what exactly does "desperation" have to teach us? Desperate people usually do the wrong, sometimes terribly wrong, thing. Not only that, I am sure you have met many warm, caring, heartfelt Christians that have had fairly ordinary lives where they did what they thought was best most of the time and nothing really bad happened to them, so a "crushing defeat" is not some sort of requirement for enlightenment. This idea smacks of what is wrong with Christianity today....

Amy T

Posted: July 16, 2008 12:13 PM

Boy, with a title such as “Here’s to All the Losers: Why Defeat at the Hands of God is Magnificent” you could powerfully minister to a lot of Christians. Unfortunately, Ms. Arends testimony seemed lightweight, sweet, and blessed with a happy ending. A perfect article for Guideposts! Let's talk about real losers in the eyes of our culture, real crushing defeat, and real calling stripped away. And maybe in this piece, there’s no neat ending … just the presence of God and lessons learned out of desperation. Then, I think, the title would fit the article.

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