Henry was a man who
worked hard every day of his life. He felt a certain amount of pride in having earned
everything he owned, but also felt some resentment in not getting the help in
life that he felt others received. It was a strange dichotomy, being proud of
his own accomplishments while wishing he didn’t have to accomplish everything
on his own. He worked a regular job that wasn’t particularly fulfilling, but
served the purpose of providing an income. The income wasn’t lavish, but was
sufficient to provide everything he needed at the expense of many of the things
he wanted. His home was acceptable. It was sturdy and big enough for him, but wasn’t
the kind of home that warranted a second glance by a passerby. All things
considered, he lived a good life, but felt it wasn’t quite the life he
deserved. After all, he worked really hard for this life while he saw other
people around him living a life seemingly well above his own while investing
far less sweat equity than he had.
One day, on his way to
his car in the parking lot at work, a man stepped out of the shadows and wrestled
Henry to the ground. The stranger was strong, but didn’t seem interested in
hurting Henry. Henry wrestled against the grip of the stranger but never called
for help. After a few minutes, the stranger abruptly released his grip on Henry
and retreated into the shadows before Henry could get a good look at him.
Henry, exhausted from the struggle, lay on the concrete for a moment before rolling
over and pushing himself to his feet.
He drove home, curious
about his encounter in the parking lot. He pulled into his driveway and turned
off his car, still perplexed by the events at work. He got out of his car and
stretched. His muscles were tired from the struggle. His arms ached where the
stranger had grabbed him and his head pounded from the increase in his blood
pressure. He trudged into his home and dropped his lunch box on the kitchen
floor. He didn’t have the energy to cook dinner, so he microwaved some
leftovers from the night before. After dinner, he crawled into bed and went to
sleep, knowing he had to be at work early the next day.
Henry woke up the next
day, fairly refreshed but still sore from the encounter with the stranger the
night before. He filled a cup full of cheerios to eat on the way to work and
threw a few snack items into his lunch box to get himself through the day. He walked
to his car and opened the door and sat his lunch box on the front seat and put
his cheerios in the cup holder. No sooner had he released his grip on his
breakfast cup that he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground with
considerable force. He fought against his attacker with zeal and determination.
Once again, Henry was able to fight off his attacker without calling for help.
He got up from the ground
and brushed the dirt from his clothes and drove to work. This pattern repeated
itself every day for several weeks. Henry would fall prey to a blitz attack by
a stranger from the shadows. The two would struggle on the ground for a few
moments with only grunts and gasps punctuating the event. Then the stranger
would retreat as quickly as he had come, leaving Henry to wonder where the
stranger had gone and why this kept happening to him. It seemed that he only
got attacked when he was doing something that had to be done as part of his
daily routine. He got attacked on the way to and from work. He got attacked at
the grocery store and at the gym. He got attacked on the way to church and on
the way to dinner with his family. He never got attacked in his own home when
he was wasting time in front of the television or while he was hanging out at
the bar with his work buddies.
The
effect that the conflicts with the stranger had on him were obvious to himself
and everyone around him. He was exhausted all the time. His attitude, though
not great to begin with, got worse and worse. He didn’t enjoy the things he had
before. His hobbies were just one more thing using up his precious energy. The stranger
from the shadows was wearing him down and making his mediocre life so much less
bearable. Henry began to resent more and more about his life. Every little
annoyance was like another ton of frustrating burden added to his shoulders.
All the same, he never
asked for help. He insisted on bearing this ever-growing burden on his own. He could
have spoken to his bosses at work about adding a security camera in the parking
lot to catch the stranger. He could have spoken to his church family about
having someone ride with him back and forth to work to lend a hand when the
stranger attacked. He could have prayed to God for help, but he didn’t. In fact,
his communications with God became more and more rare with every attack. To a
certain extent, he began to blame the attacks on God. After all, God knew
everything. He was aware of the attacks. God didn’t need a report from Henry
detailing the issues he had been dealing with and what kind of help he needed.
God knew all that.
Henry even began to wonder if the attacks were
from God. Maybe God was trying to tell him something. Maybe he wanted him to
move or change careers. Maybe God was trying to push him in a direction Henry
didn’t want to go. That worried Henry, but he refused to talk to God about it.
As far as Henry was concerned, God was all-powerful. He could easily speak to
Henry in a way that Henry would respond to. He didn’t have to attack him in the
parking lot.
Henry chose through all
this frustration, to keep silent and suffer alone.
One day, the stranger attacked
him in his driveway with a particularly vicious attack. The stranger was so
strong, and Henry was so exhausted from the earlier attacks. They rolled around
in the driveway kicking and grunting. Henry swung his fists at the stranger and
endured many blows in return. In the midst of the fight, Henry was reminded of
the passage in the Bible where Jacob wrestled with the angel of God in the
middle of the night. As he rolled over and put the stranger in a headlock,
Henry spoke to the stranger for the first time.
“I wish you’d just
dislocate my hip and bless me already,” Henry grunted. “This fighting is
getting old.”
Henry felt a tap on his
shoulder. He turned his head without letting go of the stranger. There behind
him stood a figure that looked like a man, but not like any man Henry had seen
before. A light emanated from the figure in a way that remined Henry of a solar
eclipse. Like the figure was too bright to look at except that it was blocked
by something or was turned away so that Henry could only see the figure’s
backside. Even so, the light of the
figure was so bright, Henry could hardly stand it. The man pointed at the
stranger and spoke to Henry.
“That’s not me you’re
fighting with, Henry,” he explained, “He may dislocate your hip, but I guarantee
that you won’t get a blessing out of him. That’s the devil. I’ve been right
here every time he’s attacked you waiting for you to tap me in so that I could
help you fight this battle, but you’ve been too focused on yourself to call for
help.”
Henry let go of the
stranger, who ran off into the darkness. Henry turned towards the man who
shined in the darkness, averting his eyes slightly against the brightness.
“What are you talking
about?” Henry asked with no small amount of confusion.
“Every attack you’ve
endured has been at the hands of the devil and his servants,” the shining
figure explained. “I’ve been with you every time but you refused to ask me for
help. After a while, you even gave me the silent treatment. If you had been
studying my Word as I have asked you to, you would have been so much more
prepared for those attacks. More importantly, you would have known that those
attacks were not from me. Had you been in more regular communication with me,
you would have been ready and willing to call to me for help. You would have
reached out to my other children in your life and leaned on them. Instead, you
allowed your discontentment with your life and your anger at the attacks to be
your guiding forces. You allowed your pride to keep you from the resources you
had available to you.”
Henry stood before God
unable to speak. He had finally gotten the communication had had desired and
found himself completely unprepared for the message that God had for him.
“Look,” God continued. “I
know you better than you know yourself. I knit you together in your mother’s
womb. I know every thought you have and every desire you strive to fulfill. I know
you in a way that’s completely incredible and incredibly embarrassing from your
perspective at times. No one in this world knows you better than I do. The reason
we don’t have the relationship we should is because you aren’t trying to get to
know me anymore. I am completely unfathomable. You can study me every day for
the rest of your life and into eternity and never get bored. I want a relationship
with you that is more fulfilling than any career and any possession you could
ever acquire. If you truly want fulfillment in life, search me, not the world. When
you search the world, you’ll find strangers in the shadows. I’m your heavenly
father, your steadfast friend. I have your best interests at heart. Lean on Me.
Lean on the believers I’ve put in your life. Find your fulfillment in our
relationship and you’ll find true happiness and complete contentment.”
With the utterance of
that last word, the Figure faded into the evening. Henry stood there and waited
for his eyes to adjust to the darkness as he thought about everything that had
been said to him. He couldn’t deny anything. He hadn’t been in the Word. He probably
wouldn’t have recognized God if he hadn’t literally tapped him on the shoulder.
He hadn’t spoken to God for months. Even before the attacks started, he hadn’t
been much of a conversationalist. He couldn’t remember the last time he had
opened the Bible for any reason other than to follow along with the Sunday morning
reading. How could he have been so dense as to think he could get what he
wanted out of life by himself? He couldn’t even figure out what he wanted half
the time.
Henry shook his head and
walked into his house with a new resolve. He resolved to study God for the rest
of his life and into eternity and never be bored again. He resolved to lean on
God and his fellow believers and never fight alone.
