Wrestling With God

 The Greek philosopher Socrates said that the first step in being truly alive is to "know thyself." This sounds nice, and many people today talk about getting to know who they really are as if this is an enjoyable journey of self-discovery. But in reality, this is a daunting and difficult path. In Socrates case it brought him into conflict with the Athen's leaders, who then order his execution. In the ancient Isrealite Jacob's case, he had to be dragged by God kicking and screaming (almost literally) to face himself. To truly know ourselves, we must acknowledge our less attractive actions and admit our far from noble desires. Before we can be free to be the good and splended people God created us to be, we have to first let God break the chains of sin and self-centerness. This is hard. This is not fun. And this means we all, like Jacob, must at some point "wrestle with God"!