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“Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around because he was not used to them. ‘I cannot go in these,’ he said to Saul, ‘because I am not used to them.’ Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in hand, approached the philistine.” – 1 Samuel 17:38-40
What do you think of when you see the word armor? It’s a funny thing isn’t it? Soldiers used to garb up in all the armor they could find to fight what ever was opposing their freedom – (look at how Saul tried to deck out David to fight Goliath!) But amid my struggles, I can’t help but wonder- when did “armor” become this element that shields us from ourselves? When did we decide that we need to hide every single piece of us to protect the deepest places of our hearts? At what point did relinquishing control and letting others see our raw, real, painfully authentic selves become too much for us to fathom? What leads us time and again to this place of armoring up to pretend, to cower, to hide behind a brave face?
And friends, to be honest with you, I don’t have the answer. I don’t even come close. But what I do know is that the things that lead us to layer up to hide our pain, our struggles, our uniqueness- those things sweet friends- they aren’t ours to hold. They never were. And they aren’t ours to hold because this messy, disastrous, yet somehow wonderful human battle has already been won for us. Because God fights for us EVERY.SINGLE. DAY. He fights even when we feel defeated and like we can’t trudge on any further. He’s got us and he is never far away.
Just look at the cross.
Look at our savior’s arms spread wide.
Spread so wide to wrap us in the warmest blanket of love our imperfect selves could imagine.
Grace pouring from his blood-stained tears.
Our shame nailed down with his tender hands that hold ours as we walk through our own pain-
Whatever that pain may be.
So, what if we were courageous enough to take a page from David’s infamous battle with Goliath and drop the armor that holds us down. What if we trusted God so much that we open our hearts in full surrender to him and lay our hurts, our addictions, our past, what ever keeps us from living out who He created us to be- what if we could lay that at his feet. What if we could give him our broken and bleeding hearts and allow him to heal those scars that we think we hide so well? What if we trusted just like David, that, “this battle is not ours alone, but God’s” (1 Samuel 17:47) and just started there?
I can’t promise you that this will be easy because if I’m being honest, I’m not completely there myself yet, and that’s ok because trusting doesn’t have to be this huge one-time thing. We can choose to give our trials to HIM a little at a time each day (over and over again if we have to), because in the end, small things lead to big change.
Just imagine how amazing this life can be when you give the battle to the one who so selflessly conquered the world. Imagine a life without your addiction, your eating disorder, whatever your “pretend armor” may be. Imagine a life where your most jagged and deepest scars are healed because of how much HE loves you. Imagine a life where your value isn’t defined by the words of your mother, father, sister, or brother but your worth is defined by the words of your HEAVENLY FATHER who knew everything about you before you were born, and I believe He doesn’t make mistakes. So, believe me when I tell you that YOU are not a mistake, because YOU are HIS. And because you are HIS he will fight to set you free every single hour of every single day from the chains that hold you down. All we have to do is relinquish our armor and trust. Just like David.
My Life In Rediscovery 