David, my
pre-teen grandson, is helping me with yard work and he continues to resist
wearing gloves. He’s boy tough…Who needs gloves? He cut down last year’s growth
of Pampas grass and little hairy stickers attacked his hands. The next day he
cut back the Juniper bushes and received welts all over the backs of his hands.
I’m reminded of Paul telling people to put on the full armor of God and I can
imagine a few of the guys in the crowd saying, “Nah, I don’t need to put on the
breastplate for this little job. And today I don’t think I’ll be needing the
shield of faith, maybe I’ll take it up tomorrow.” The Scripture wants us fully dressed,
spiritually equipped, and ready in all situations, “Stand firm then, with the
belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness
in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that
comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of
the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:14-17 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----After going chest first into that raging road, the next sensation I remember was of being upside down. I didn’t think about what was coming next, like I did while watching the pavement into my chest, because I was now watching the top of my motorcycle’s seat and gas tank slowly cross through my visual field. That was such a relieving sight! A client recently told me of a car turning in front of him. He laid his Harley down and rode it, probably not much unlike a snowboard. But. Evidently the tires came back in touch with the pavement, because he was suddenly catapulted into the side of that car. And. The Harley didn’t go away. It was still there. Right behind him. Now in mid air. In mid flip. He said his rib cage was shattered like a glass jar in a gunnysack. The doctors said the entire length of his back bore the imprint of his bike’s sissy-bar. So I inwardly rejoiced at seeing the separation I had from my five hundred pound Honda before the lights went out.
-----At forty miles an hour or not, what is up yet comes down. And what is upside down does that upon its head. I could have been wearing a helmet. Nor should I have been. My head was yet tucked from having watched the pavement into my chest, such that this second landing drove my chin into a rib so hard that the rib cracked. From the top of a plastic motorcycle helmet through the plastic, through the compressed padding, to the top of the head is at least an inch distance. One inch is a lot to demand of what slack might be available in the skeletal system. A two hundred twenty pound mass hitting solid ground at forty miles an hour is going to insist more than demand. There’s only one place that inch of slack would have been found. Shattered neck bones.
-----To this day I thank God with great joy that my helmet of choice was a leather flight cap. My neck was not so much as sprained! And although the pavement made a palm sized bloody scrape even through the leather, it did not scalp me. I was dressed just right for this accident.
-----I’ve been studying synchronicity the past couple weeks. It is a quasi-scientific term for meaningful coincidence. There is a lot of meaningful coincidence in this world. I think everyone can recall some experience of their own filled with meaningful coincidence. And the fact that the term and concept was first developed by Carl Jung from much correspondence with Wolfgang Pauli and Albert Einstein shows that God rains and shines on His followers as well as the wayward. For synchronicity is just a ten cent word for Divine Providence, a million dollar value. And by that, when the helmet needs to be thin it will not be thick. Yet it will remain a helmet. “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the LORD.” (Zeph 2:3)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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