Lay Your Armor Down

Life really starts to become real once you begin your walk with Christ; you react to your surrounding just a little different. No one I have come across can really put their finger on just what it is, but we all feel it. We lose that edge that we carry around with us everywhere that we go; always worrying about that next step, that next confrontation. Our fear, regret, and worry are almost shed from our bodies.

Do not get me wrong though, the life of a Christian is not a blissful, can do no wrong lifestyle; we still fall short on a daily, if not hourly basis. The difference though is how we cope with our situations. Back before my walk with Christ, I was very hard on myself. Can anyone relate to that? No matter what situation I was in, I was the center of the problem in my own eyes. I was the loose end. To make it worse, it seemed that no matter what I did, I could never prevail to a position where I was no longer the problem. Every time I tried to correct or conquer my problem that I had, all I managed to do was to add another tally to the board of situations that beat me. What was my problem? Why was I not able to fix my situation?

My problem was that I always looked at myself as the ultimate problem solver. I had the answer to all the problems. I was that guy that everyone came to when they had problems. I was that friend that everyone seemed to depend on when they were in a place that they didn’t like. The interesting thing though is that my record solving other people’s problems was phenomenal. But yet my own record was nothing to be proud of. This did not make any sense to me. Why was I able to tell my friend just what he needed to hear, but not be able to make my way out of a box with no walls in my own situation?

The problem was simple; I was that guy. We all know him; many of us are still probably today that guy. The kind of person that will tell another exactly what the problem is, and how to fix it, but the second that exact situation comes into their own life they resort to a direction that better suits them. Sometimes the way out of a situation is not the easy way out. With that being said, it is a lot easier to tell another a hard way (but logical way) to overcome a situation, than to do it yourself.

C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his genius writings about the Laws of Human Nature. In short, we all have these laws in our souls; they are our reasonable side. They are that quiet vague voice that tells us in a situation what should be done; they are our God consciousness. Many of us battle our whole lives with these Laws of Human Nature because most of the time, they tell us to do what we normally do not want to do. The problem is that we all wear this sort of armor. A guard that we feel protects us from the world, and that will allow us to overcome our problems as they arise. We know what ought to be done, but we feel that we have an easier, better way to overcome; that the latter way is a weak sort of way because we are not in control of the situation. When in all actuality we are exactly what needs to be taken away. Our way of handling situations is the reason that all our problems our piled before our feet.

We need to lay our armor down. We need to realize that our actions and plans are only deepening our lives into a place we wish they not be. I knew these Laws of Human Nature that C.S. Lewis spoke of, I knew them well. They were the answers that I gave to others. But once I found myself in my own bad situations, I relied on my armor. Once we lay our armor down, and rely on our God consciousness, our problems will seem to work themselves out; and isn’t that exactly what we have been looking for? Ego is a powerful thing. It is difficult for us to admit that our problems are of our own making, and that the only way we can possibly overcome is to rely on another. But that is exactly what living a Christ filled life is all about. The reliance upon the amazing power, wisdom and love of the Kingdom is exactly what allows us Christians to live our lives without edge. We need not worry about how we are going to come out of today’s bad situation, because we trust that Christ will lead us out; with or without our help.

A Decade Under The Influence

There is a war going on for our minds, our souls, and our very existence. Most of us live our daily lives in the trenches without even the slightest cognitive notion of what is really happening. How could this be though? We know war, we see it every day on our TV sets, hear the pundits talk about it on the radio; but this battle is something different. Something that is so deep in our souls we are unaware of it. Those that are unaware of the struggle are so because they are ignorant of the battlefield. And that premise is exactly why this has been published; to inform, to enlighten, to spread.

One thing that I have found is that we are not so worried about what we understand; we are more worried about what we know. What I know is that I love my family, I enjoy playing music, and I wish I could understand. These thing I know for certain. But what is it that makes me love my family? This I do not understand. Sure we could come up with certain thought and ideas that could maybe bring me to some kind of conclusion, but even then, would it be a concrete solid understanding? Something we will never understand, but we will know. The problem today is the lack of knowing. This is how we have gotten ourselves into our personal warfare. We do not know, so we do not fight.

Influence is one of the most powerful tools to persuasion and dictation. We do what we believe to be best. But how do we determine what is best? We determine by what we know. If one tells us that we should go this route down the road, and we know that the person that told you is wise, we will probably take that route. We made this decision because we trust this fellow; our thoughts and actions were influenced by another. This is not a flawed sense of direction for life. Where it does get flawed however is when one gets influence from another that is corrupt. So what happens when all that we know is corrupt?

That point is the crucial point; what if the source of our influence is not what we think it to be? We may honestly think that the road we are taking is the best possible road to be on; but in all actuality it is the worse, and we are none the wiser. Our problem is not what we know; it is what we do not know. What we know is the flesh. All that is around us that we can feel, touch, and hear. But there is something far greater. A force that is never corrupt, never lies, and is always sustainable. God has created the flesh, and all that interacts with it, but sadly another force has snuck in and corrupted it. This force has influenced us for far too long; I speak from my own sinful past. But there is a way to break that bond. That way is to know the force, and glory of the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom that created before corruption. We live in the dark because we do not know the light. Once we are introduced to the light, everything starts to make a little more sense. I look back today at decisions I made in the past that I thought were the finest I could have made, and today I think what was I thinking? The flesh has that power to make an obvious lie a certain truth.

So today we strive to know the kingdom of God; to gain influence from its light and glory. We have to shed our relationship with the flesh, and all of its convenient, little truths. When we do this our lives will become clearer, our relationships stronger, and our understanding closer to concrete.