“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;”

Ephesians 6:16

How do you stay resilient enough to move? And tough enough to withstand all the flaming arrows that the evil one shoots your way?

Kevlar vests stop bullets. Well, bullets from pistols anyway. Not all. And, please, don’t take my novice thoughts here as an excuse to get in a gun fight to prove me right. But, these vests are built to stop, or at least seriously slow down, bullets. That’s pretty amazing considering a bullet out of a pistol moves anywhere between 600 and 800 miles per hour. The speed of sound is 767 MPH. 

Like most things in our world, there has been a consistent improvement through the course of time. Body armor has gotten better and better. When steel and ceramic plates are added the stopping force increases dramatically—but so does the weight and restriction of the armor. You can become more armored, but you become more rigid, weighed down, and its harder to move.

Why am I focusing on body armor today? 

Because we need protection. Our children and grand children need protection. Our loved ones need protection. Life is no joke. And, the evil one lurks around every corner. Arrows are flying around constantly. Parents, more than ever before, must stay vigilant. The world is ever turning. And, it continues to turn away. There has been no slowing of the onslaught of fiery arrows hurled your way. 

I don’t want to be alarmist. And I’m certainly not a doomsday theorist. But, as I look at the news, the entertainment industry, and any number of other places, it’s pretty easy to conclude that we are not in Kansas anymore. The world is harsh. And it continues to find new ways to influence, suck in, and hi-jack our focus and attention. And that of our children.

We need body armor. And, sadly, this is a literal truth for too many of our children as school shootings have become normalized. But, today I don’t mean literal body armor. I mean the Body of Christ armor. Our children need you.

Paul reminds us that faith is the shield that protects. It stops the arsenal that is thrown at you. Faith is your body armor.

Kevlar is a remarkable material. It is strong—really strong. But it is flexible. It’s pliable enough to be woven into a fabric. It was developed as scientists studied and learned more about a similar, yet natural, material: spider webs. 

Arachnophobia aside, spider webs are incredible. They are incredibly strong and amazingly flexible. In fact, pound for pound spider web silk is 5 times stronger than steel. Read that sentence again. The reasons is the alternating elements that form the building blocks of spider web silk and Kevlar. Both are made up of alternating ultra flexible material and incredibly strong material. This alternating part construction allows the best of both worlds. The end result is a material that can be woven and worn as a vest but still be strong enough to stop bullets.

The other reality of spider web silk is it’s really sticky. You know this after walking through one. Even after the web has been removed, it is often a long time before you “feel” like it is gone. The web lingers. 

This is the “Body of Christ” armor that you wear and that you help others wear as well. I call it a Faith Web. A web of faithful people that stick to you and stick with you. They help you be resilient through this world. Their truth and voice in your life counteracts the lies you hear and the lies about yourself that you tell. A faith web is strong and it is flexible. 

Ancient Roman soldiers created an impenetrable force with their shields when they formed the Testido formation.  This is when a group of soldiers linked together with their shields interlocked in the front and on the top of the formation. Nothing in the ancient world could penetrate this formation. 

Using the same imagery—what does it look like to link your faith with those around you to create such a shield that it stops all the evil one throws at you.

This is the church. I see this web of faith when I watch faithful friends surround a loved one as they go through difficult treatments. This is the small group ministry that wrestles with the Ward of the Lord together. I see this when faith friendships are so well developed that they become surrogate aunts and uncles for one another’s children. A faith web is resilient enough to respond to the challenges this world throws our way and our way to respond. And the shield of a faith web is strong enough to stop the advances of the evil one in their tracks. 

Who’s in your faith web? Who has a faith that teaches, inspires, and comes to your aid? And, who names you as a part of their faith web? How are you supporting, loving, and pouring life into others?

Take some time and write out 2 different lists: Those who help you in your faith and those who you help in theirs. There will be some overlap, of course, but the goal is to not have them as duplicate lists.