God in the Struggle

I found this lovely sermon by Maren Sonstegard-Spray from First Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Virginia: "Struggle and Change," on the topic of the presence of God "in the dark." So often, when we do the work of identifying family generational patterns, we find ourselves pressed up against the Wall of darkness and pain that Peter Scazzero describes in his book. Sonstegard-Spray speaks to how our moments of emotional darkness often surface in those vulnerable moments of literal, physical darkness, when we are quiet and alone. 

Awake, in the dark, I can tell you that I am not alone.  In the dark I wrestle my small worries and big fears, in the dark I meet good memories and painful regrets, in the dark old wounds are opened up again, in the dark I make lists of should dos and should have dones. 

Fortunately, awake, in the dark, there is also prayer and God.

Fortunately. ...And also: 

...we get a different picture of God’s character in the dark night of the soul.  There God is in the struggle and is the struggle.  There God doesn’t give easy answers, but God is still there. 

When God gives Jacob a new name, Israel, the beauty of the Hebrew is that it can read as “the one who struggles with God” or “God struggles.”