Sparring with God: How to Accept both the Rebuke and the Rebuild

The Double-Edged Sword

Genesis 32: 24-28 "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?" “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

   A relationship with God is hard to maintain because there's this dichotomy - He is both the one who will discipline you and the one who will comfort you; He is the one who will smite you, but also the one who heals you. 

He's a dad who wants to spar with his kids so that they learn how to fight. 

   I know what you're thinking, "What kind of dad would fight his own child??" Don't forget, sparring is just practice, and God would rather be the one to bop you on the head not only so that you learn to see it coming, but so that you also learn what you're weaknesses are in a low-risk environment. 

   God actually cares about you. What if the difficulty experienced while sparring is guarding you from facing harm when you get in the ring with someone who really wants to kill you? If you haven't sparred or practiced at all, you won't just get hit, you will die. 

   But can I be honest? It's hard sometimes. Sometimes you get tired of getting hit, especially by someone who claims they love you. 

As a Christian, your life is a sparring match with God. And that never goes away. 

   Even the most seasoned Christians still get in the ring with Dad and go a few rounds. In fact, the most experienced Christians got where they are because time and time again, they did not shy away from rebuke. 

    You'll have seasons where God is training you; Where you're failing, trying, getting hit, and you're exhausted. And then you get out of the ring, and God (the same one who was throwing those blows) will patch you up, and nurse you back to health. 

    That's confusing!! You're being punished and rewarded by the same person. Most people are one or the other. But let me just say, the people who give you both are the most trustworthy. 

Proverbs 27:6 "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses." 

God may be a comforter, but walking this path is never comfortable. And the Bible confirms this in many places. 

Hebrews 12:6, "because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastens everyone he accepts as his son." 

   As a child of God and as a disciple, you have to learn to accept both the rebuke and the rebuild, because God will give you both. That's what he does to his sons and daughters. Look what He did to Jesus! He had him crucified. 

   As Christians, we will meet the same fate. In order to be worthy of ruling with God, we have to withstand the trial. The hard thing. The rebuke. The death part is necessary to receive the resurrection that is to come. 

Matthew 12:25 "and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." 

    Eternal life only comes after you yield your life completely. As long as you live, you will always be working on your weak spots with God. The question is, how long can you tolerate being told (and shown) where you're weak? This why people don't like Christianity. It is the constant awareness and continued work on your most obvious and reprehensible flaws. It's self awareness to the max. 

That's why people don't like the Bible. 

My double-edged sword

        Hebrews 4:12, "The Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

TLDR: The Word of God is the ugly truth, and the truth hurts (in the wise words of Lizzo). 

   The Word of God cuts you down and builds you up. That phrase "double-edged sword" is a literary device. Do you remember those? English class, nobody? Me either, I had to Google it. 

   It is an "idiom," which is a word or phrase that literally means one thing and symbolically means another. In this case, a double-edged sword symbolically represents something that has upsides and downsides, pros and cons. Benefits and consequences. The Word of God comes with irrefutable gain, but it also inevitable cost. And similar to this is our walk, which is sometimes hard and easy. Beautiful, and ugly. Sorrowful and joyful. Light and dark. 

Sparing Ourselves the Rebuke 

John 15:1-8, "I am the true grapevine and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

   Christianity is not a cake walk, it's more like a trail of tears. Telling you that seems like a terrible evangelism strategy. Come join Christianity, you will suffer! Not the best tagline. 

   Nobody will want to follow Jesus if we tell them that! But what if the appeal of Christianity isn't ease and luxury, but that it's the only way we will be spared? After all, this verse lays it out plainly for us: If we don't bear fruit, we will be eliminated entirely. So yeah, maybe it's worth the trouble. 

It brings to mind something that I am experiencing right now in my life. 

   I am a Graphic Design major currently in college, and I am taking a Photography 1 class because it is a pre-requisite to be accepted into the Graphic Design program at USF (my dream school). I also took it because (of the long lists of electives I could've taken) it seemed like one of the easier electives, and ironically, it ended up being one of the hardest classes I have ever taken.

  

Taken from inside the Photo 1 lab

    In the first week, half the class had dropped the course. We had to purchase about $500+ of supplies outside of the initial cost of the class. But that cost did include the 35mm SLR camera that we had to supply for ourselves. A camera that was not only hard to find, but about as ancient to me, a member of Gen Z, as technology from Egyptian times.

   And not only is the class expensive, but it is time consuming! We shot 8 rolls of film for our first project. That is 36 exposures per roll. Meaning, we were taking 288 pictures, and we would only end up printing 6 of them for the assignment! How outrageous is that?

   If that wasn't enough, we had to process and print all of our own photos, which means hours of our free time was spent in the lab and dark room (which is only open at certain days and times during the week, by the way). My biology lab was less work than this!

   I had one classmate who I was in several classes with, and he dropped this class in the first week. In the following weeks as me and other Photo 1 students told horror stories about this class, he would boast about how he "dodged a bullet," and he mocked us for not having done the same. My classmates and I even told another professor at school how bad the class was, to which she responded, "You guys are not selling this class."

   We weren't. But we also didn't shy away from rebuke. And even though our lives became much more difficult than those who dropped the class, our ability to endure and adapt made us ultimately stronger than those who fizzled out. 

   The benefit of the class isn't its' ease or pleasure, however, the fact that we were disciplined more means that we got better and stronger because of it; And maybe, just maybe, when the Gardener comes around with his scissors, sharp as a blade, we won't be the ones cut from the vine. 

You see, actively avoiding discipline and rebuke instead of taking on the challenge isn't the flex you think it is. 

    That would be like accumulating credit card debt with a buy now, pay later approach to life. It only prolongs the inevitable. We chose to accept the rebuke and undergo the hard work of making ourselves useful. We learned how to bear fruit the hard way; And those who spared themselves the trouble of doing that will eventually be cut from the vine altogether. 

In life, you want to be the fruit that is kept. 

    You want to be spared from eternal condemnation, so you should accept as much rebuke as you can bear. 

Fight or Fail

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

   To go back to the sparring example, it may seem unappealing to get in ring only to get hit or knocked down. However, the only way to truly fail, is shying away from the fight. 

   If my school life was like the movie "Rocky IV," those who dropped Photography would be the people who sat on the sidelines watching the fight. And those of us who stayed in the class were like Rocky Balboa. Even if it means we got knocked down a time or two, at least we figured out what our weaknesses were so that when we finally got in the ring with Ivan Drago, we'd learned a few things. 

And don't forget - spoiler alert - Rocky always wins. The people who sit on the sidelines never do... because they never got in the ring! 

       Hint: This blog post isn't about wrestling, or Photography... or even grapes. 

   I don't know what you're up against, or what enemy you're in the ring with. But God's plan for all of us is that we'll come out on top, as long as we don't shy away from the fight. And yeah, the walk of Christianity is tough. In Greek, the word "christian" itself means "follower of Christ." It is a combination of "Christ" (meaning "anointed one") and "tian" (which means "little"). We are little anointed ones. We are called to be mini versions of Jesus! Of course, it's not as cute as it sounds. 

   Being a follower of Jesus means doing what He did, and what He did was rough. Of course, it is undoubtedly worth it. 

    As a Christian our life is dying to the self day after day, everyday, for the rest of our lives. Either we pay now and play later, or we play now and pay later. 

To me there is only one choice. There is only one Way. It is the road less travelled, the narrow path. But it is the way that leads to Jesus. 

Until next time,

Josephine <3