Armor

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand..." Eph. 6:11a (NIV)

Today, as I was preparing to go for a walk, I found a large box on the front step. With great excitement my father said, "It must be Katie's armor!" You probably are wondering, at this moment, why I would need armor. "It's got to be from bikerbandit.com" he continued. With great enthusiasm I carried the parcel to the table and cut through the tape. There it was. A magnificent piece of women's dirt biker gear. A grey mass of plastic and material shaped for a woman's body. A breast plate of great durability. It was a chest protector made specially for a woman with boobs. Yes, boobs. I have them, and they need to be protected whilst I maneuver my Honda XR200 through the woods of St. Croix or Nemadji or where ever else we go.

Also today, I continued my weekly Bible study with a few of my friends. (This is where the Bible part comes in.) We read Ephesians 6:10-20. As Victoria read the passage aloud to our small group I thought of the correlation of my dirt bike gear to the armor described in this passage... [Here is the passage below if you're interested]

Ephesians 6:10-20 (New International Version)

The Armor of God ¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. ¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

So I thought about this correlation because it's sort of a metaphor on top of a metaphor. My brain was bombarded by this doubled metaphor in my mind, but I put it aside as we discussed the passage and how we can apply it to our lives.

For me to become a good dirt biker I need to have the right bike, protective armor, and my body needs to be in good shape. Likewise, for me to become a better Jesus follower I need to pray to God for wisdom and strength, keep myself away from temptations, and know the word of God (The Bible). These are all hard things to obtain, yet the hardest part after that is to be fearless. When I ride my dirt bike I get in the zone of 'no fear'. There is always discerning judgments concerning paths and rocks and roots in the ground, but no fear of hardships or injury. In life when I have an opportunity to follow Jesus by telling someone of the gospel, for some reason I am afraid. I think of myself instead of others. That would be like thinking of how I look in my dirt bike armor rather than thinking of how I should turn, before I run into the next tree. There should always be discernment in what to say, but there should not be fear in telling the good news of Jesus Christ. I should have no fear of hardships or injury (mental, emotional, or physical) when standing up for God and sharing what Jesus has done for me.

If you actually finished reading this- thankyou. If you just skipped everything to read the end- I understand completely. Whoever you are, if you have a question about God, Jesus, or what brand my armor is send me a line through the comments thingy and i will definitely catch up with you.

You've Got Mail

I love the movie You've Got Mail. I have nothing really to post today except that I have nothing to post. So too bad if you wanted to read something boring because I have nothing to type.

Blah...

Boring Weekend

Check out the Christian Rap! hehee!

Weeds, Sun Block, and Sunshine

You may not know this, but pulling weeds can be enjoyable. At least when you know you're getting paid for doing it. Of course the best types of weeds, to have fun pulling, are the ones that have been growing for over a month and are taller than the flowers that were supposed to grow in that flower bed.

Working outside all day has its perks. I can wear shorts and tennis shoes and a hat if I want. I don't have to wear makeup because not many people will see me that close anyway. I get lots of fresh air and sun. Lastly, I get a nice tone of tan on my...arms and neck. This type of sun tan usually is referred to as a farmer's tan. I tried to make it better by rolling up my sleeves but it didn't help. It only gave me a second shade of stripe. On my day off I wore a sleeveless shirt to tan my moon white shoulders. Now I have four shades to my arms: dark tan, light tan, white, and red (which just happens to be peeling). I should have just let my farmer's tan be. At least my arms would've matched my legs.

This weekend is the Sunshine Festival, and I still have never been. You'd think an avid Christian music fan would go to this enormous Christian music festival, but I still have never been. Some of my favorite bands will be playing there such as: Relient K, Capital Lights, Hyland, Children 18:3, Asher, Newsboys, Barlowgirl, Skillet, and more. But I still have never been. I wish I could go.

Capital Lights

I just found out about another amazing Christian rock band. Capital Lights. http://www.myspace.com/capitallights I have some videos of them on the sidebar if you're curious. Not only is their music great but they have some great graphics on their cd. I looked up their design and illustrator guy, Ryan Clark for Invisible Creature. http://www.invisiblecreature.com/ You should visit their site to see some of their other fabulous work.

Sweet Stuff

I was looking at a list of blogs that are popular and found yellowgoatdesign. This designer makes jewelry that is amazing! Since I love jewelry and design there was an instant attachment. I found these earrings from her blog. I want them, but I will never have them. (I know it's very sad.) Either way I think that this designer is a jewelry genius. Thankyou yellow goat design lady (I have no idea what her name is).

Facebook Hiatus

Hello There!

Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace has become an obsession to many people. The idea of these sites were to help people communicate with their friends, but they have become sites to help people stalk their friends and many other people they don’t know. I have fallen into the trap of sites like this. Facebook seemed like a great way to stay in touch with people when I first used it. I sent messages back and forth with my friends and sent them flair and all that fun stuff. Then the Facebook people changed layouts and applications and let people make ridiculous quizzes. (The quizzes remind me of Fwd: emails because of their countless supporters, lack of reality, and they fill up your notifications box.) I have come to see that all I ever do on Facebook is check to see what other people are doing. If you have no life it can be addicting, like that first potato chip. That’s probably the reason large companies are paying through the nose to get Facebook to be public. They have become so addicted to reading statuses that they want to know everyone’s random thoughts or actions through these online communication sites. I, on the other hand, have a life and found that my friends, who have lives, do not communicate through Facebook anymore. That is why I have decided to take a hiatus from Facebook, deleted my Twitter account, and have not had a Myspace account for the last 5 years. Instead, to fill up that extra 15 minutes, I may or may not write on this blog and let any readers know some of my random thoughts that are way too long to write in a status box.