Nice Helmet...

A good friend asked me this week, “What the heck is going on at your church?!”  Good question.  We’ve been ministering to a lot of people in need lately.  We’ve always helped people with gas and utilities when we are able, and the past couple of years we’ve helped people repair their homes when they haven’t had the income to do it themselves.  Those are the more visible ways a church helps those in their community, I suppose. 

Needs recently have shifted from the tangible to the spiritual: from the helpless and the hungry to the hopeless and the hurting.  Families are falling apart.  Divorces are being filed.  Addictions are being fought.  And along the way, people are finding that they can’t do it alone.  Most have tried.  They’ve pushed through in the past as they have stood back up and brushed off their bottoms.  But here they are again… or still.  Not only are their bottoms in the mud, but hands, faces, and heart, as well.  Some have fallen hard to temptation through lust.  Others didn’t pay attention to the warning signs and stepped over the fence to water the grass of another.  Some, especially our men, have falsely listened to the burgeoning dark industry of pornography and thought looking at a few images or watching a few videos wasn’t doing anyone any harm.  Such lies. 

But each has one thing in common: they lost sight of the One who can strengthen them for fights like these.  Paul or one of his followers wrote a letter to the early Christians in Ephesus, what would today be considered modern day Turkey.  Within that letter is a wonderful, tangible description of a very spiritual reality.  We call it the “Armor of God.”  It goes like this: “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand.  So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace.  Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.  Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers. (Ephesians 6.11-18, CEB)” 

It’s a great reminder that so many of the struggles we face today are not human in nature; they are spiritual.  When we break a covenant with a spouse in order to satisfy a longing that isn’t being met otherwise, we are looking in all the wrong directions for that longing to be filled.  When we take that next drink, pop that next pill, or shoot up that next fix, we are searching for our next high in all the wrong places.  And when we are tantalized by one more XXX-rated image in order to feel intimacy with someone else, then we really don’t know what intimacy is all about.  It’s time to pick up our armor, the only armor that can do a thing to protect us.

So yes, there is a lot going on in our church… and probably yours too.  So when I see you on the streets or at a potluck or on the bleachers of the next home game, don’t be surprised if a bunch of us are wearing some new, yet ancient, accessories.  Holiness can’t be picked up from time to time.  It has to be worn from the moment we wake each day until we crawl safely back in bed at night.  If we are to remain a people who are set apart from the evils of this world, then we’re going to have to do it together.  By the way, nice helmet…