This past Saturday morning a bunch of us came
together as a community at faith lutheran to create a Labyrinth for our community and our first
opportunity to minister to someone came earlier than most of us expected. Around 9:30am a couple of the students that
had wandered away from work and around to the new “ark” playground came running
back and a bit afraid. They had noticed
someone decided to use the ark as a shelter for the night, and sometimes when
you come across something you weren’t expecting, it can scare you quite a
bit.
Two adult leaders and myself
went over to the playground and asked the students to stay behind so that
whoever we found would not be embarrassed by having a large group of people
around him, but also because the person could have been potentially dangerous
and we didn’t want to take the chance of any youth being hurt. We climbed up into the ark and began
attempting to wake the person. After a
few hello’s and asking “are you okay?”, the boy woke up.
At first the boy didn’t know
where he was…groggily he asked, “Am I in a tree house?” We told him that yes he was in the second level
of a playground and again we asked him if he was okay. He said he was okay and explained that he was there because he
and his friends had too much to drink the night before and he had been too
tired to go home, so he crashed in the ark sometimes after midnight. We asked him his name and he said
“Jacob”. After a few minutes he was
awake and aware enough to get up, and we told him we could give him a ride
home, so I drove him home. I talked to
him on the way and let him know that if he needed anything to call me and when
I dropped him off I gave him my phone number. I could tell that he was hung over and probably had a bad headache and
didn’t feel very well.
What happened with Jacob
reminded me of Jacob from the bible. In
the old testament there was a person named Jacob that was a trouble maker and
wasn’t the most honest, but God had a plan for him. One night when Jacob had decided that he wanted to change and
that He wanted God to help him change, the bible says that Jacob wrestled all
night with a man that was believed to be an angel. Jacob wrestled with this angel all night long and when the angel
saw that Jacob would not give up, he asked him what he wanted and Jacob replied
he wouldn’t let him go unless he blessed him, so the angel changed his name (Jacob)
that basically meant “undercut”, to Israel, which meant, he who
strives with God, or someone that doesn’t give up on God and seeking after Him. The angel also injured Jacob for some
reason. He touched his hip and gave him
a limp for the rest of his life.
Jacob from the bible and
Jacob from Saturday morning have something in common besides their name. They both made a decision that brought
pain. Jacob from the bible decided to
not give up striving with God and ended up with a limp and was also probably
very sore from wrestling all night. Jacob from Saturday morning decided to get drunk and woke up in a
potentially embarrassing situation with a bad headache and a hang over. Living life without experiencing pain is
impossible. There are going to be times
that pain is inevitable; it’s going to happen. And sometimes we will be the ones that made the decision that caused us
pain. What’s important to know is that
sometimes pain is a good thing. For
Jacob from the bible, pain meant that he hadn’t given up, that he had wrestled
with an angel all night long and was blessed for it. Jacob from the bible had a limp for the rest of his life that
reminded him of that night, which reminded him to never give up seeking after
God, and reminded him that he was now and forever changed.
Let’s pray for Jacob, that next
time he be more like Jacob from the bible. Then let’s pray the same thing for ourselves.
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