Tug of War
- Capital Fellows
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
By Dillen Chung
In a game of tug of war, there are different roles for each person on a team.
The person at the very front watches the opposing team and reacts quickly. The middle members help balance the pull and maintain tension of the rope. The last person is the anchor, the strongest and heaviest team member. They are in charge of stabilizing the team and calling out the rhythm and timing.
Why am I talking about this childhood game, you ask? There is a reason, stay with me. When I was thinking about what to write for this blog, the idea of tug of war came to mind.
While the front member has an important role to play, the anchor is the most crucial because if the anchor falls, everyone falls. That is why you must choose your anchor wisely. They must be the strongest, most reliable team member. If my walk of faith is like a game of tug of war, ideally, God should be my anchor, and I should be relying on him for stabilization.
I don’t know if you’ve played a game of tug of war recently, but when you’re at the front, it’s easy to feel like you are the one doing all of the work. Because you only see the rope being pulled to your side, you miss all of the work that is being done behind you. When I played this game at a recent youth group retreat this past year, I definitely felt like my contribution was a large one (even though I was probably the smallest one pulling the rope). When our anchor fell, we all fell. When my rhythm was off with the anchor, I fell.
Similarly, I have a tendency to feel as though everything that has happened in my life is due to my own strength: graduating from college, getting into the fellows program, and doing well in my job placement. However, I forget that all of this is due to the work God is doing behind me; I am simply following along his cadences and rhythm. When I adopt the idea that it is all my own strength, I can tend to start pulling at my own pace, falsely believing that I have become the anchor of the team. When that happens, though, God can reveal my limits, and I fall.
These past couple of weeks, God has definitely revealed my limits to me. I experienced a health scare two weeks ago, something I’ve never experienced before, that caused me to be hospitalized for three days. As I lay in the hospital bed, connected to monitors and IV’s, I realized that I was powerless. It was a huge wake up call for me that ultimately, nothing is really in my control. However, I was also reminded of my steady anchor, God, my father. All I needed to do was listen to his voice and follow his tempo.
To continue along with the analogy, God also places people in our lives to help us pull the rope. I am thankful that this health scare happened when I was in the fellows program, and that it happened where it did. I am thankful to my host family for knowing how to respond and calling 911 immediately. I am thankful to my fellows class, Yujin, and John Kyle for supporting me, sending me text messages, and visiting me. Those messages and check-ins meant more to me than you all know. I am thankful to my work placement for praying for me and being so understanding of my situation. I am thankful to my youth group kids for writing me beautiful letters that brought me so much joy. I am thankful to my parents, grandparents, and boyfriend for visiting me in the hospital and making sure I was well fed and rested.
This whole situation was a good reminder of God’s constant presence in my life, and also that I am not meant to pull the weight on my own. I will leave you all with these verses that I feel encapsulate my past couple of weeks:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)
Dillen Chung is a member of the Capital Fellows class of 2025-26. She is from McLean, VA, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia. This year, she is working at Five Talents in Falls Church, VA.
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