Prayer: Dear God, we sometimes wrestle with you. May we find our blessing even though we may end up with a limp. Amen
Reading: Genesis 32: 22-31 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: Having recently read Rachel Held Evans's book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water and Loving the Bible Again, I recalled she wrote about Jacob wrestling by the river, receiving a new name, asking for a blessing and leaving with a limp. I simply want to share that today. So, please read Genesis 32: 22-31 and here is part of what Rachel had to say: "The biblical scholars I love to read don't go to the holy text looking for ammunition with which to win an argument or trite truisms with which to escape the day's sorrows; they go looking for a blessing, a better way of engaging life and the world, and they don't expect to escape that search unscathed. ....If I've learned anything from thirty-five years of doubt and belief, it's that faith is not passive intellectual assent to a set of propositions. It's a rough-and-tumble, no-holds-barred, all-night-long struggle, and sometimes you have to demand your blessing rather than wait around for it. ...If we're lucky, it will leave us with a limp" (from Inspired, by Rachel Held Evans, 2018) Perhaps I share this especially because Evans passed away earlier this year unexpectedly after an illness. Next time I will write the devotion. This time her words live on. -- Ruth Gates
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