So, I stand.

This past week I have been substitute teaching my dad's classes at the college. It has been draining, but also very fun and encouraging. Tuesday morning, I taught the class "Spiritual Life." Topics? Spiritual Life and the Mind and Spiritual Warfare (I find this somewhat ironic given my own journey recently, but that's a story for another time).

By the time we had break, the class was pretty fired up--and we hadn't even gotten to spiritual warfare yet. When we came back from break, we started discussing the reality of spiritual warfare and looked at Paul's matter-of-fact description of it as well as the 'armor' that God has provided for us. Our discussion/my teaching quickly became one of the more humbling experiences of my week (month... year).

I drew a stick figure person on the chalkboard and dressed him with the armor: helmet, breastplate, belt, shoes, shield and sword. I labeled each item with its association: salvation, righteousness, truth, preparation of the gospel of peace, faith and the Spirit (which is the word of God). So there was Soldier; dressed and ready to go. But then, as we continued looking at the passage they realized that all of the 'armor' was defensive in nature except the Sword (the Spirit, which is the word of God).

It was like I saw it through their eyes for the first time: the Spirit fights the battles. We are told to stand, to stand firm. We are not told to win, to fight, to be offensive or anything like it. The Spirit fights and we are protected by the armor that has been provided and given by God Himself. There is literally nothing I can do to protect myself, to have victory, to fight any battles. Period.

Even the armor that I wear is given to me; there is no room for shared triumph.

So, I stand: I stand clothed with Grace draped over me with the hands of the victory King Himself.

Sweet.