Wrestling with the Uncomfortable || 06.25.2022

I have written close to 70 messages by this point, but I struggled this one Sunday last year. I can usually take our scripture or topic and create a message without any problem. This week was the first week that I was left stumped. I looked at scripture, waiting to hear from the Holy Spirit to move on a verse, word, or a topic, but nothing. I studied a concordance for hours, picking each word apart and seeing what I could explore. I was frustrated, stressed, and confused. Why was this the text that was giving me fits? As I talked through this wrestling with a couple of people, they said: “Why don’t you preach on the wrestling you did?” My first thought was, “Nah. That’s too simple of a solution.” Then I remember it’s often the simple solution that makes the most sense. So, I’m here to talk to you about my wrestling with God’s word.

I’ve often struggled to understand what the Bible means. We hear of the stories, poems, historical accounts, and more every week or multiple times a week and often accept them at their face value. I’m sure any of us that have been in Sunday School or Bible Study or those who listen to the sermon can relate to that. I’ve learned that they’re not what they seem once you dive into the stories deeper. There’s more context to them. There’s a more profound message. There’s a story that the author tells us that lies under the surface of the text. When I learned that, it changed me. It has taken much undoing from the variety of teachings that I took at face value and started to dig into the text more to see a lot of what we don’t. It takes much wrestling to do that, however.

It feels like if we dive deeper into a text, we don’t believe what the text says. We’re trying to change the meaning of scripture to fit our lives. That’s not at all what we’re doing. What doing that means for me is that I want to make sure that I hear what God is telling me. I can see what God is saying to the audience of their time and myself through the author. It’s why I have this huge fascination with the letters of the New Testament. I feel like I am doubting God, but it also feels like I’m growing closer to God by doing this. The wrestling that I experience with the Bible, and I’m sure with what some of you experience, is something that I’ll be doing all of my life. May you feel the comfort in the discomfort with your wrestling.