Co’Relous Bryant
Senior Pastor, United Church of Lincoln, Vt.
When the logic of this world fails to offer a cogent explanation of what the heck is going on. I turn to divine interrogatories for relief. I have developed a bold posture of asking God to provide answers for the growing incongruence of how things are and how they ought to be. I do this under the guise of seeking wisdom, but between you and me, it’s my chance to cross-examine the One who has the whole world in His hands. This unabashed, childlike “but why?” approach is saving my spiritual life right now. Because whether in God’s wisdom or humor—God, on occasion, responds.
As a young boy, my mother warned me not to question God. At that age, I would be complaining about not being able to go out and play because of the clockwork summer afternoon thunderstorm in northeast Florida. Every afternoon in the summer, between 4 and 4:30 p.m., the skies would darken and open and suspend every child’s daily recreation dreams. I would suck my teeth and stomp my feet and ask, “Why does God have to make it rain right now? Why, God, why?” My southern mother would snap back almost reflexively, “Child, don’t you question God.” Since childhood, I have carried a real complex about questioning the Creator.
Imagine my surprise and delight when years later in seminary I come across Genesis 32. Jacob wrestling with God. Wrestling!? I was so hung up on making God an interlocutor and here was this patriarch of our faith in a literal tussle with the Almighty. And if you read the passage carefully, you see that Jacob not only wrestles, but then he demands a blessing, and then he, wait for it, asks a question about God’s name. The audacity to inquire! The nerve! So now friends—I keep a running tally of holy questions.
But I have also discovered that my mama was right—as always. She was right to tell me to be careful about questioning and demanding things from the Ancient of Days. More often than not, when I pose a question to God in the mirror, the answer to that question is staring me back in the face. Remember, friends, many biblical scholars believe that Jacob was actually just wrestling with himself. So be careful. It’s okay to question, wrestle even, but God’s solution might just be you.
Wondering where God may be in the midst of serious poverty? God may be wondering where you are. Wondering where God may be in the treatment of our neighbors and refugees? God may be wondering where you are. Wondering where God may be in the everchanging brokenness of our world? God may be wondering….
So, friends: question, interrogate, cross-examine—wrestle. But when God has a question for you, be just as faithful in the answering as you are in the questioning.
Pray, Practice, Ponder
Reflect on a time when you have wrestled with God. How did this change your faith and your life? Consider this: Are you prepared to be the answer to your own prayer?
Pray. . .Give. . .Go.