Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It’s easy to turn our backs on God—in the short term. Life has a way of buffeting us about, of illness and disasters and disappointments happening to us or those we love for no discernible earthly reason.
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless 
me.” (Genesis 32:26, NRSVCE)
Things go all right for a while when we turn away. Oh, sure, it seems weird that Sunday mornings come and go with no Mass, that what was our morning or evening prayer time instead becomes consumed with anger and regret and depression. But we’re still getting by, and it can almost feel good at times to tell God that you and He are finished.
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”
And then comes that day, months or years or decades down the road, when we realize that truly, there is no substitute for faith when it comes to getting through this life. Things might not make sense with God all the time, but without Him, nothing makes sense.
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”
And it is in that moment, the moment that we grudgingly or fearfully ask for forgiveness and seek His renewed blessing that we realize He never did let go, much as we thought He had.
And neither had we.
