Walk This Way

³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,and he was limping because of his hip.”
Genesis 32:31

 I grew up in an era where MTv actually meant “music television”.  My suppressed Pentecostal roots informed me that MTv was of the devil.  To mama’s credit, she has more than likely been right.  But the enticement of the melodies put to moving pictures was too much to avoid.  And besides Bon Jovi talked about praying and Stryper was on the Top Ten Videos.

But it was the collaboration of Run DMC and Aerosmith that struck my fancy.  I wanted to do nothing more than “walk this way.”  My nine year old mind had no comprehension of what the lyrics actually meant.  Again, mama was probably right about the devil of MTv.

But the hook had me hooked…”walk this way, walk this way”.  You’re welcome, now it is stuck in your head too.

If Jacob had a melodic hook that was his theme song it may have been the melodic beat of “walk this way, walk this way”

Jacob had the ultimate cage match with the Lord of Lords.   In one of those it can only be in the Bible stories, Jacob finds himself alone and the bible says “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.”

A couple of questions: where did the man come from?  Is it normal to just wrestle a perfect stranger?  And what were they wrestling over?  The rabbit trail of questions is long, so we will leave it there.

What we do learn is that this mystery luchador could not or did not over take Jacob.  And in that moment the scripture tells us the grappler without a name simply touched the hip of Jacob and it wrenched.

Spoiler alert: the story jumps ahead and we find that the man was the Lord.  And Jacob is renamed Israel.  And Jacob walks away from his Royal Rumble with royalty walking different.  In fact he limps his way back to his family and into the arms of his brother who he had deceived.

From that point forward, Jacob (now named Israel) walked different.  The limp was a reminder that his life had been forever touched by God.

I have wrestled with my own limp.  Broken relationships created broken places.  A broken home and a broken heart of childhood left hurt and hiding.  A marriage of my own that has dissolved and been shattered into a million pieces left me a lot like Jacob, grabbing for anything to hold on to.

What I have learned is that when God touches something in your life you never quite walk the same. Today I limp.  I limp not because I am hurt, but because the God of the universe has touched the place of hurt.

I have often tried to hide the limp and walk “normal”.  I have tried to walk like everyone else.  When I do, I rob God of the very thing he wants most – the GLORY!  God is healer of hurt and helper of those in need.  When we encounter the healing, helping God we are left different.  We are so changed and transformed by the touch our lives never really return to normal. (Or at least never should.)

Our limp is a reminder of God’s touch, but also a testimony to others that God has the ability to change our walk.  Our very limp is resounding recognition of the hand of God touching our life.

Because of the places God has touched, I will forever limp and “walk this way”.