Put it on.

I am reminded of the scene in the Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring) when Gandalf visits Bilbo at Bag End and is helping him to know that he must let the ring go. There is a bit of struggle for Bilbo to be convinced that he should rid himself of his "precious", but after Gandalf thunders and reaffirms his longstanding friendship with his dear friend, Bilbo declares that, "Yes, the ring should go to Frodo." Bilbo, then grabs his pack after his declaration and heads to the door, about to exit into the shire and be on his way. As he arrives at opening the door and before he steps out of Bag End, Gandalf calmly and knowingly says, "Bilbo. The ring is still in your pocket."

My heart gets this scene because my heart has such a hard time following through with hard and challenging things. Boy I can bust open facebook or check the score of the game from last night with pinpoint regularity, but I notice the tendency to not follow through and to forget about doing things that are actually crucial for my real life heart living and not merely centered on my trite entertainment and fleshly routines.

During these summer weeks I am turning my focus to the bible book of Ephesians, the sixth chapter and verses 10-19 where the man in the bible named Paul writes about what is traditionally known as the armor of God. There is a battle in the heavenlies and in current, earthbound hearts for the souls of women and men and most earthlings are oblivious to its extreme realness and unfolding plot. There is a real God, a real enemy, a real battle, real armor for us from God and what's at stake is real life.

Our jumping off point is whether we believe the battle is real or not. I would say that most of us including most of me haven't and don't always live like we believe that battle is real. I live so casually at times that my life can't possibly be validating that there is battle raging for my soul, both without and within me. And that is where my friend Bilbo and I are similar. He said that Frodo should have the ring, but he forgets oooooorrrrrrrrrrr has chosen not to leave the ring.

I find this thought running around in the first verses of our summer passage in Ephesians six. Verse 11. "Put on the full armor (real armor) of God (real God) so that you can take your stand (real battle) against the devil's (real enemy) schemes." Notice what Paul says, just two verses later. Verse 13. "Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground..." Why is Paul saying this twice in a span of 3 verses? Perhaps because I forget to put the armor on oooooorrrrrrrr choose not to put the armor on. In either case, I'm in dire trouble because the battle doesn't cease being brutally, blood real over my soul in any scenario.

And I can live my comfortable, from good meal to vacation to fun moment to social media post kind of daily life and my soul is bleeding out onto the pavement because I'm not putting on the full armor of the Lord. I'm just not.

" Yes. I desperately need to put on the full armor of the Lord."

"Damon. You haven't put on the full armor of the Lord."

Lord, please help me. Please.

There's more.