Wrestlemania!

I don't know whether wrestling is your cup of tea. I used to watch it regularly when I was growing up, as it was on the telly on most Saturdays at 4pm. A little bit of innocent fun while the tea was being made, while we were waiting for Doctor Who to start.

In my later years I have watched some of the WWE wrestling shows, which are a different kettle of fish. It wasn't too bad in the early Nineties, but over the last dozen or so years it's got pretty graphic and is not particularly wholesome. Gone are the days when you watched it for the actual wrestling - the storylines seem to have taken over. I've read biographies of the participants themselves, and find they have to commit themselves entirely to their career, as they are working night after night, on tour for several weeks at a time. Divorces are common. Drug addiction is also rife - but these are usually painkillers! Not really the right role models I need to follow; nor the right role models for my family.

Wrestling? Now it’s time for me to tap out. I've got other issues to wrestle with.

Begone, unbelief, my Saviour is near,
And for my relief will surely appear;
By prayer let me wrestle, and he will perform;
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

2.Though dark be my way, since he is my guide,
’Tis mine to obey, ’Tis his to provide;
Though cisterns be broken and creatures all fail,
The word he has spoken will surely prevail.

3.His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.

4.Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine food;
Though painful at present, ’Twill cease before long,
And then O how pleasant the conqueror’s song!
SASB 712 (John Newton)

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O strengthen me, that while I stand
Firm on the rock, and strong in thee,
I may stretch out a loving hand
To wrestlers with the troubled sea.
SASB612, v3 (Frances Ridley Havergal)