The Wrestler

By Julian Newman
        

Back in the day I was a MAJOR wrestling fan. Hulk Hogan, Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka, Junkyard Dog, Macho Man Savage, Andre the Giant, Roddy Roddy Piper, were just SOME of the characters I watched on TV. My dad loved wrestling too. He would even let me stay up late to watch a few matches on school nights every once in a while. On Saturdays I would watch the WWF cartoons and talk about the ‘36 inch pythons’ of Hulk Hogan.

I did my best to ‘say my prayers and eat my vitamins’ (I later found out that wrestlers took a lot of ‘vitamins’ to get as ripped as they were!). Wrestle Mania was a HUGE event that had EVERYONE talked about in my junior high school.
I’m not sure why I liked it so much. Because I never envisioned myself wearing multi-colored tights, being called by some crazy sounding name, or having a chair broken over my head while a pre-occupied referee is doing something else. I never dreamed of becoming a wrestler. And most likely, neither have you. It wasn’t until recently I realized I was one. Yes, a wrestler. And you are one too. You and I wrestle all the time.

No we don’t bizarrely jump into a ring doing a silly dances while attempting to pin an equally strange opponent. When you and I wrestle, we wear regular clothes. We go by our given names. We don’t travel to exotic cities to compete in state of the art arenas. We rarely go outside our comfort zones to get into the squared circle. It’s not neccassary because we are not wrestling human beings. We are wrestling God.

Wrestling God with our negotiations, our second guessing, and open rebellion.

Wrestling God with our rationalizations, our compromises, and our substitutions.

Wrestling God with our indifference, our inconsistencies, and our resistance.

Wrestling God with our refusals, disobedience, and our excuses.

Yes, we are wrestlers. Just not the kind we are supposed to be.

We have been called to wrestle evil, injustice, darkness, and the Devil; instead we are just wrestling God.

What the world might be like if His wrestlers only wrestled the right opponents.
Scripture of the Day: “I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.”
 - Psalm 119:60


Julian Newman is a husband, father, writer, artist and storyteller who serves as Lead Pastor of Renaissance Church in the greater Sacramento region. He has passion for creativity, innovation, leadership, outreach and evangelism, mentoring, the arts, reading and teaching the bible. Find him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/JulianNewman