You may not know the name Amit Elor, she won the gold medal in the Olympics for her weight division this week. Elor is a wrestling phenom whose family immigrated from Israel to California. Her late father had been an athlete, throwing the shot put and her brothers all played high school football and were on the wrestling team. She grew up wrestling the boys on the team and beating most of them. She has wrestled for five years without losing a match. She won gold in wrestling’s 68-kilogram division, beating Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova 3-0 in the final at Arena Champ-de-Mars. Amit has had other issues with which to wrestle just like Jacob in the book of Genesis. Her brother was killed in a robbery in 2018, and her father died during the COVID-19 pandemic. But through these tragedies, she has kept her goal clear to the be one of the greatest female wrestlers in the world.

You may be more familiar with names in the other “sport” called professional wrestling. More colorful names like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, “Nature Boy” Rick Flair or “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. To become a professional wrestler, you will need to go to one of their training schools and if you are tough enough to finish, you will be either a hero or a villain. Heros are called “faces” and villains are called “heels”.

In Genesis there is long story about a guy named the Heel who wrestled with a divine being, not an angel with a dazzling glow but a messenger who looked like a “man”. The Jewish Study Bible calls him “a divine being”. Genesis 32:22-32 is one of the strangest passages in all of the Bible (ok, the talking donkey may have it beat) but it shows us that sometimes a relationship with God is like a struggle. We are flawed, sinful people who, in our relationship with God must face our flawed decisions, attitudes and actions before a righteous God. Jacob, “the heel” had been a grifter and conman most of his life, it was time for change. So, he was given a new name, “Israel” or “one who contests with God”. He was also given a limp to remember the confrontation. The name “Israel” has long been debated as to it’s meaning. One translation is “one who fights to victory along with God”. To do that we, like Jacob, must face who we really are and who God needs us to be. I hope that describes your life today- waking up each day to face the challenges of life with God as your shield and strength.

(Steve Berger is pastor of First Methodist Church Minden, a Global Methodist Church. He is the husband of Dianne, his partner in ministry, they have two adult sons, a dachshund, and love living in Minden.)