Hello, friends! 

As promised last week, this is your seminary intern, Alex, coming to you live with my first Monday Musing. 

One of our lectionary texts from Sunday was Genesis 32:22-31, in which we find Jacob alone on a riverbank. He has just sent his family and all of his belongings across a river, when a man approaches and wrestles with him until daybreak. When the man sees that he will not prevail, he strikes Jacob’s hip socket, and begs to be let go. But Jacob replies, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” By way of blessing, the man says “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” When Jacob asks for the man’s name, the man questions why Jacob is asking, blesses him, and presumably disappears. Jacob then calls the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 

The first time I heard this story, I thought Jacob was SO LUCKY. I mean, he got to wrestle with God, how cool is that? (To help you imagine this precocious child ready to go wrestle an omnipotent being, I provided a picture of three-year-old me and my noble steed.) And then, as I experienced my first crisis of faith, I realized that perhaps wrestling with God was not as fun as I envisioned as a child. Part of that unfortunate epiphany was that I was wrestling with the wrathful God of southern evangelicalism.

Now, in divinity school, it seems that wrestling with God has become a daily part of life. While the wrestling has never gotten easier (even after leaving the God of my younger years in North Carolina), I’ve returned to my childhood belief that to wrestle with God is a privilege. To have an abundance of questions is a privilege. And having a community of sparring partners (like you all at Wellington) is a privilege as well. So, I suppose this is all my long-winded way of saying I am so grateful for this year with you all, and look forward to your company in this season of profound wrestling. 

Thus concludes my first attempt at musing on Monday. If you have questions, comments, concerns, or thoughts about what you would like to hear from me in these, you are always welcome to email me at alex@waucc.org. 

Godspeed, 

Alex