This week is brought to you by the letter S, and the word supine. This is probably not a familiar word to you — it wasn’t to me either until after neck surgery this past week.

Context. I had three cervical discs replaced, and I literally have a scar that resembles something Jack the Ripper may have performed. Therefore, I have a rigid neck device that restricts all movement as well as a soft brace for showering and lying in a SUpine position. 

I had to look up the word.

su·pine: adj. 1. lying on the back or with the face upward
                2. willing to be controlled by others: passive
                3. having the palm upward

Fascinating... because I was being forced to be in a passive position, face and palms upward, willing to be controlled by someone else. It sounded less health-related and more holy responsive.

In most scripture, we see people falling facedown in fear or adoration — Abraham, Joshua, Ezekiel, the Israelites, and the disciples. But face up is uncommon and unconventional. It requires a degree of conviction or a dose of confidence. Both require tenacity, which Jacob had.

Jacob, Abraham’s grandson and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, is on a journey. He sends his large family ahead of him, while he stays in the camp and wrestles with God to be blessed. He’s got some nerve, right!?

[Then the Man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”] 
Genesis 32v28,30

Jacob was not left unscathed. The original Hebrew verse implies his thigh was severed. This face-to-face encounter had left him with a limp, limitations, and a love that could only be found in a SUpine position. 

I’m left with several mementos from my procedure. A gnarly scar. A bionic spine. And a glorious slowdown that put me on my back — face up, palms open, and heart willing — to be wrestled and renewed by a good God — face-to-face.

Send this to someone too tired to wrestle or too tenacious not to 😉

grateful —