HAPPY NEW YEAR, Graceview Family!
As we step into 2025, we are invited not only to chart new paths forward but also
to engage in deeper reflection—on who we are, why we are here, and what it
truly means to walk with God.
This past month, I had the opportunity to read Dr. Jordan Peterson’s We Who
Wrestle With God, a profound exploration of faith, humanity, and the eternal
questions that challenge us all. Peterson draws from the Biblical story of Jacob
wrestling with God—a powerful image of struggle, transformation, and divine
encounter. The book reminds us that the Biblical corpus offers characterizations
of God, yet they are not the only expressions of the divine. If only we, as men and
women, could live in covenant with the divine, recognize our true nature, and
take up the responsibility of walking with God, how much more could we
experience the fullness of life!
Our wrestlings with faith often mirror our wrestlings with life itself. In the face of joy, we celebrate. Yet in moments of suffering or uncertainty, we find ourselves
asking profound questions: Is God truly in control? Why do pain and loss persist?
What purpose does it all serve? These aren’t mere intellectual musings but deeply
personal struggles that shape the course of our lives.
But wrestling with God is not about finding easy answers or suppressing our
doubts. Rather, it is about bringing our fears, questions, and struggles into the
light of God’s presence. It’s about seeking to align our lives with His greater
purpose. Similarly, wrestling with the realities of life and death calls us to move
beyond superficial comforts, to embrace the responsibility of living out our true
calling as people made in the image of God.
This year, I encourage us all to engage in meaningful wrestling—not for quick
resolutions, but for the deeper truths that shape our faith and character. Let us
wrestle with what it means to trust in God’s sovereignty, to embrace the
responsibilities He has placed on us, and to live as faithful witnesses in a world
that longs for hope.
May 2025 be a year of profound discovery and transformation as we wrestle with
God, grow in His grace, and walk in His light.
Blessings ahead,
The Rev. Eric Lee