Wrestling with God

I was recording some pocasts for the Sanctuary First website yesterday, the theme was all about struggle and wrestling with God. I was amused, while flicking through Youtube to come across a group of people who believe in "Christian Wrestling". Well to say they believe in wrestling might not be quite right. They certainly are seeking to share faith with those who are in the wrestling scene. It all seemed a bit incongruous to me at first sight. It just seems a bit strange to hear someone compare their experience of pain in the wrestling ring to Jesus and his suffering on the cross. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWJvxuLIqdI[/youtube] Talking about struggle and coping with struggle got me listening to Dylan's song entitled "Pressing On" I found it quite inspiring. ( The camera work on this clip is not that clever but the sound track seems okay) Dylan takes his inspiration for this song from the writings of the Apostle Paul. He is writing to the Phillippians from house arrest in Rome. ( Philippians 3. 12-16 ) He is no doubt flanked by a couple of Roman guards and he know his chances of survival are slim. But he's not giving up. He says he's keeping going. There is something in the "keeping going" that validates all the struggle that we have previously endured. Paul reminds his readers that he has reached the stage in his life where he simply has to forget about the past. You know the issues that come up time and time again to haunt us. No doubt Paul had many such bad memories of his past life. So much so that he felt constrained to change his name from Saul to Paul. The encouraging thing for me is that Paul is saying look you've got to leave all that behind, you can't beat yourself up for ever, you've got to press on and find yourself living in a new and better place. I like Dylan's musical interpretation of the meaning of these verses of scripture. Yes there has to be struggle but we" press on" even in the dark because we're moving somewhere. We're moving to the higher ground. How good is that? We're struggling not to fail but to succeed because we're following our Lord.

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