The Pulpit Speaks: April 4, 1959

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

One of the most challenging stories in the Bible centers around Jacob’s wrestling with the angel.

Here was a man who knew what he wanted and was willing to fight until he got it. The story is important to many of us today because it has an application to our lives.

For far too many people live in a day when old fashioned “guts” or in the language of the modernist, “intestinal fortitude,” is missing. The art of holding on is definitely missing. In nearly every walk of life, we see men who have failed, or who are failing, because they lack the courage to hold on.

I am fully aware that to hold on really calls for fortitude on the part of all concerned. All of us should hold on even when things seem hopeless. The world is what it is today because some men have dared to hold on, and carry on in spite of handicaps. Before each of these men stood the tests of the age, before them were goals worthy of all the sacrifices they were called upon to make.

Jacob had been wrestling for most of the night. The dawn was about to break and his strength was slowly ebbing away. At this point, desperation had set in. Let go and the much sought after blessing would be a thing of the past.

How many times many of us have let go at the wrong time! Many times we let go when our blessings are almost in our hands. But Jacob said, “No, if I must embarrass you with the letting of daybreak fall upon you I am going to keep you until I receive my blessing.”

Today thousands of people are cursed with habits that prevent them from receiving blessings. All it takes to receive them is a little more courage to hold on. But when the right moment comes, many of us have given up. When the right moment comes, we often have so exhausted ourselves that there is nothing left with which to fight.

When the dawn starts breaking on us we lack the moral or intestinal fortitude to hold on. Sometimes it is only a matter of a few minutes, or days, or weeks, but in desperation, we have already thrown in the towel. The challenge before many of us is to hold on and to wrestle with the forces that would hold us back or keep us from attaining our goals.

I know that there are any number of reasons why, day after day, many of us give up. There is something within that grows weary of the wrestling. Sometimes the reward seem almost out of sight. Sometimes our very last hopes are apparently dashed to the dust and it appears that the only solution is to give up. But then we suddenly look up, coupled with our ebbing strength is the coming of the dawn and with it, a new determination. If there is no blessing, there will be no release.

It is at this point that each of us must renew our determination to achieve our goals. At this point we cannot falter. At this point we must not lose our hold. The only thing we can do is hold on to that which is able to bless us. Somewhere in the constant struggle that haunts us, in the darkness of our existence lurks an angel who is able to bless. Our blessings are the results of our determination. In many instances, the dawn is about to break — all that is needed is a little more intestinal fortitude to enable us to hold on. Just a few more moments and our angel must return to his place of abode.

Our blessing are many times withheld from us until we see the dawn. The struggles that many of us put up with must, and usually do, end with the dawn. Blessings cannot be realized until our eyes are open.

Many times we are so bent on the wrestling that we forget the blessings that await us. We must rise up with eyes that are open and hearts that are alert and then, and only then, will we be in a position to appreciate the blessings that await us.

This story of Jacob has meaning for all of us today. In the final analysis, all of us are but wrestlers. We wrestle with social, moral, cultural, economic and spiritual problems. In our wrestling, we finally realize that, over and above everything else, there is an angel waiting to give us a blessing when the dawn has come and it is no longer possible to linger with us. In spite of all that life offers in terms of hardships, in all areas of our activities we must hold on and await the dawn and the blessing.