Armor

Armor has been an important concept throughout my life. I grew up as a little boy, like most, playing war in the backyard. One of my favorite games was being a knight. I wasn't too creative in costuming myself, so most of my knightly armor came from my imagination. As a knight, I was invincible, being the hero of the day, saving the princess, and slaying the evil that was plaguing the land I had sworn to protect! Or... something like that.
Then, on another level, I was introduced to the concept of spiritual armor, which is spoken of in Ephesians 6:10-20. It talks about the various pieces of "armor" we must have on as Christians in order to stand strong against our sinful nature and the Devil.

But another form of armor that I think that we all have comes in the form of who we put ourselves out to be, which is over the top of who we really are inside. I have become acutely aware of this armor in the last week. I have gone through highs and lows of trying to figure out who I am and why I sin so very much all of the time. Coming with this has been the realization that people don't see that side of me, that dark side which is mostly covered up by that armor I have on. In Romans 7:14-20, Paul talks about the two sides that we have as Christians: the good side and the sinful side. When we accept Christ as our Savior, His Spirit moves into our lives and starts to move our hearts toward being more and more like Him (that is, if we surrender and let Him do it.). But yet, we still do those sinful things in our lives, those things that we hate. Why? Because the sinful nature is still within us. The only way that we can move towards being like Jesus is to let Jesus Himself to the work. It's the pain in our lives which helps move us toward that, along with submitting ourselves to His will. The more we spend in His presence, the more we get a taste of who God is, the more we want to be like Him!

And that's been hard for me this year. Why? Because I haven't had a strong Christian family around me. I some Christian friends, yes, but it hasn't been an overwhelming presence in my life this year. And that has made things to tough. I haven't had the accountability I've needed. But I'm on the edge of the next chapter, as scary as that is. And I've been praying for a church family to come into my life, and I know there's one out there being prepared for me to come too.

So, which armor is good and which armor is bad? Obviously, the spiritual armor is something I pray for everyday. It's something I desperately need in my life, as we all do. But is the other type of armor bad, the type that covers up who we are to the rest of the world? Yes and no. I think we have to be careful with it. We do need to be real to the world, to be able to show the world that we are as messed up as they are, so that they may see the Lord building us up in our lives and rejoice that He is! But obviously that armor will always be there to shield people from our true selves. No one can truly know who you are completely. I think that armor is there to protect both us and everyone else. But we have to be willing to take that armor off in order to show those close to us a little bit more of who we are as time goes by, so that they may know us deeper. That's why the armor is there. It's built into us to protect ourselves.

As we grow older and wiser, we learn to tighten and untighten that armor, and when to do each. We learn when we need to wear it tightly and when we need to wear it loosely, because both are important to know. We can't tighten up ourselves when we are with those we love, and we can't expose our vital parts to just anyone.

That's what it comes down to, like most things in life: Wisdom.