Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison. Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

On Wednesdays, we orient ourselves in the Old Testament, those ancient, earthy stories that tell the truth about what it means to live faithfully in a complicated world.

The Old Testament doesn't sanitize the human experience. It gives us real people, real struggle,

and a God who meets us in the mess. Some of these stories are quiet and some of these stories

are exhilarating or comforting. Others are disruptive, unsettling, and deeply

honest. Today's passage is one of those. Today's reading is Genesis 32, 22 through 30. That night,

Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 sons, and crossed the

ford of the Jabuk. After he had sent them

across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 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.

Jacob said, please tell me your name.

But he replied, why do you ask my name?

Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place, Peniel, saying, it is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

This is not a story about a peaceful surrender. It's a story about a refusal.

Jacob doesn't pray politely, eyes closed, hands clasped, head bowed. He doesn't offer a carefully

worded confession. He doesn't submit quietly. He grapples.

He resists. He holds on to God through the night. And remarkably, God does not withdraw.

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