When Life Feels Uncertain

Standing on the banks of uncertainty, I, like Jacob, wrestled with God. I anguished in the not knowing. I wrung my hands over my unknown future. Would the other side of the river hold tender celebration or my worst nightmare? Weary and fearful, I looked into the dark unknown and wrestled God with my doubts and questions.

My prayer list right now is full of women standing on the banks of uncertainty. One friend struggles to find a lifeline as she navigates her mental health. Another wades through the torrent of doctor’s appointments and chemotherapy. And a dear Mom feels like she is drowning under the stress and grief of her teenage son’s addictions.

Oh, the weight and the temptation to despair!

But then I remember Jacob. I remember his wrestling and his plea for blessing. And I remember the years before the Jordan River scene; how he fled from his brother, the deceiver becoming the deceived. The world must have felt twisted and wearisome and unsatisfactory.

Yet, as dawn broke wide open upon his wrestling, Jacob was a different man. A blessed man. A man with a new name. But a man with a limp.

As we watch Jacob hobble across the River and into the arms of forgiveness, I wonder at a God who stood with Jacob on the banks of uncertainty and gave Himself to Jacob’s wrestling. A God who chose to become weak so that, in Him, we could be deemed a victor!

So if you are standing on the bank of uncertainty, find freedom to be like Jacob, who wrestled with God from the setting of the sun until it nearly rose. It’s really exhausting work. Let that be said. And you will walk out with a limp touched by love. Let that not be swept under the rug.

But once you have wrestled on the banks of uncertainty, and hobbled out across the River, may your limp be a reminder you saw God face-to-face. Just as the rising sun is a beacon of hope, may this truth shine bright: God became weak so that in our weakness He might prove His strength!

You will walk with a limp, we all do, but you will have wrestled with God and seen Him. And you are blessed for it!