I was a HUGE professional wrestling fan growing up.
Every Saturday at noon, my brother, Mark, and me stopped everything to watch Mid-South wrestling. Then we would try to recreate the wrestling holds and moves. We would practice piledrivers off of the back of our couch when mom wasn’t watching. We went to live matches with our Grandpa Cox at the Tulsa convention center.
For me, THIS was the true golden age of professional wrestling. Cowboy Bill Watts ran the show with his boots and bravado. It was the GREATEST! We got to watch (and imitate) the most amazing wrestling superstars ever! There were legends like Hacksaw Jim Duggan (with the BIG stick and a BIGGER patriotic strut – HOOOOO!!), the Junkyard Dog (with “Another One Bites The Dust” as his entrance music…GREATNESS!!), Ted DiBiase (we got to see the Million Dollar Man before he hit the jackpot), the Rock and Roll Express, the Fabulous Freebirds (who said tough guys can’t have feathered hair), and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. There was even a mysterious masked man named Mr. X, I’m not super proud of this, but I tried to imitate Mr. X by putting a pair of (hopefully clean) underwear on as a mask. I thought it made me look pretty mysterious.
these were my heroes. They were tough guys in tights and trunks. The announcer was a young dude named Jim Ross, he was also an agricultural reporter for a local radio station, so he would talk about angus one day and armbars the next. He was clearly more excited about wrestling, he went on to find his place in the hall of fame.
It all added up to unparalleled sweaty greatness and we got to witness it!
I loved Wrestling. It might have been genetic, wrestling was so sacred to our Grandma Lang that if you went to her house while wrestling was on, you couldn’t talk to her. And, if you stood between her and the little black and white TV, she would likely hurl an ashtray at your face.
Wrestling was serious stuff in my family.
AND, to me it was REAL. Every body slam and storyline was the real deal.
It was simple, every week, someone was wrestling for a new title. Titles were important! They fought to get the belt. It was a big deal.
You can argue that it was fake, but the truth is nobody gets out unscathed. That isn’t fake. Real hurt happened. Have you recently seen some of the older wrestlers? These are men who left it all in the ring night after night, and now they have the scars to prove it. Their bodies have been broken. They walk slow, probably with a limp. They hurt.
It’s crazy, but wrestling wasn’t invented in Tulsa, or Connecticut, or anytime in our lifetimes. I’m pretty sure that wrestling is the oldest sport in the history of the world. Guys have been doing it since the dawn of time. Put two boys in a room and when they run out of stuff to talk about, which usually doesn’t take long, they wrestle. We are better at chokeholds than conversation.
There’s a story about a BIG wrestling match way back in the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 32:24-31 tells about the original wrestlemania.
It’s a small chunk of the story of Jacob.
Jacob had been a wrestler from the womb, literally!! He has fought his twin brother all their lives.
In professional wrestling, a heel is a wrestler who is a villain or a “bad guy”, Jacob is a “heel grabber” from birth. He has committed horrible acts of villainy against his brother. In this story, Jacob is against the ropes, he is about to face his brother the next day, they haven’t had a good storyline. Jacob has cheated and deceived his slightly older sibling and now it looks like he is 24 hours away from his day of reckoning. And, things could get ugly. He knows that his brother, Esau, is headed his way and he’s bringing 400 friends. It looks like it’s payback time! Jacob is stressed. He is alone wrestling with doubt and fear. Then the bells rings and a voice….”LET’s GET READY TO RUMBLE!!! In this corner, the deceiver, in that corner, the mysterious stranger”. He wrestles all night with this man and he unmasks Him. He is wrestling with God and he is left with the scar to prove it.
Once, Jacob figures out who he is grappling with, He says: “I will not let go unless you bless me.” Talk about bravado! He knows that God is nothing short of everything. And, Jacob won’t settle for anything less that everything that God has for him.
Jacob wrestled for a new title. He went from “Jacob the deceiver” to “Israel the God-wrestler”. Along with a new title, He is left with a limp for the rest of his life. He is marked.
As Jacob wrestles with God, he realizes who God is, AND for the first time, he realizes who HE really is. He is ISRAEL. He has a new undisputed title!! His life is never the same, he is never the same!
Don’t be afraid to wrestle with God, ask Him your questions, throw your doubts at Him. Be completely honest with the ONE who already knows you best. Press in and don’t let go of Him until you get all of Him! Contend for a new title. Let God tell you who you are. Let Him unmask you.
It won’t be easy. You will probably end up with a limp, but you will realize who God is.
Get body slammed by pure grace.
Grab your tights and jump in the ring!!
HOOOOOO!!!!
carbonated joy 