To Contend
We looked across the mat at each other. He looked ridiculous, but so did I. Weeks of smack talking over our team’s text thread had led up to this point.
Drew is a mountain of a man, and while I’m no slouch, he definitely has the advantage. But today was different. We’d both won our respective matches, and up to this point we were both undefeated. I knew the odds were not in my favor, but given the circumstances, I had a chance to come out on top. And I almost did.
I took him the distance and went all 5 rounds in a best-of-three sumo suite wrestling match. It was hilarious, and harder than any of our RP staff team thought it would be. Jeremy broke a leg. I broke a toe. All of us came out with sore muscles, realizing we aren’t as young as we once were.
The next morning we engaged in some additional wrestling. We were trying to succinctly sum up who we are as RP. What are we about? Who is our target, and what is our hoped-for outcome? Why do we do this thing? I won’t do a deep dive into that here and now, but one word that made its way into the conversation had been haunting me for a few weeks. It was the word “contend.”
Contend is made up of two parts: “con” and “tend.” The root “con” means together or with. “Tend” means to stretch, strive, or struggle. The way we are thinking about it, we intend for it to encapsulate the idea of strive together or struggle together on behalf of first story- the glory of God in ourselves, our families, and our communities.
The very next day we had to put that concept into place. More wrestling.
We had a conversation around team structure and responsibilities that created a lot of tension. No one person caused the issues. The tension was mostly triggered by our second stories – the scars of our past experiences. Rather than glossing over it and moving on with the plan for the day, we called an audible and chose to sit in it. Jesse and Chris guided our team into a hard conversation by creating safe space to be honest.
I’m proud of our team. That conversation would have almost certainly never happened in the corporate world, and even in the ministry world its unlikely. There was vulnerability. Honesty. Tears. Kindness. While we have a high degree of “get’r’done” type people (we are mostly 8’s and 3’s on the enneagram), we found the ability to slow down and tend to what needed attending. We intentionally stopped in order to struggle – contend – together, for each other.
It was hard. And it was good. It was gutsy, and loving.
What hard conversations do you wish you had stepped into?
What contending needs to happen in your life?
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Cody Buriff, Chief of Resources and Experiences
