I know it has been a while since I posted some Tea from the Bible - well, the Bible and I are giving each other a break. Ok, not the whole Bible, that Israelites getting to Canaan part of the Bible. For those new to the blog, I started a page title Tea from the Bible to review books in the Bible (something similar to the book reviews I do). The last book I reviewed was the first part of the Book of Judges (read Embracing the Fall Season).  I did not get round to blogging about the ending because it was ugly, think femicide ugliness...disgusting ugliness.

As I was still trying to digest it and figure out how to blog about it, I thought to read the next book - the Book of Ruth - to see if I could get inspiration. It did not work. So I thought, maybe if I retraced everyone's steps, I could be able to join the dots, so I retraced my steps to the Book of Joshua (the Book before the Book of Judges), and things are bad there too...too many wars. I know that part of reading the Bible (or any other text) is to learn from the text and its context, but I was not in a place where the first thing I wanted to consume in the morning was how people were plotting to take lives...plus I had a lot of questions for God. 

So, the Bible and I decided to take a break from each other. 

I ended up downloading the Youversion Bible App, and have been following the concise daily verses.

If you use the App, you know that this week was a deep dive on Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. The specific verses are Ephesians 6:10-18 where he asks them to put on the full armor of God - clearly there is war everywhere in the Bible. Day after day this week, different Bible teachers and preachers have unpacked these verses. They talked about the type of war this armor is needed for, the importance of having the armor, parts of the armor and today, there was a reminder to continue praying, not just for ourselves but for everyone. 

As I listened to today's lesson, I thought of the group I am academically curious about, people struggling with substance use disorders and their families - and the types of wars they go through daily. 

I also thought about the people who are caught up in actual wars - bombs and guns fire and machete type wars, wars that are not of their making, war about power, wars about rights and 'rights'. 

Does this last verse include these people.

I know prayer works...but I also know that 'thoughts and prayers' has become one of those cliché - washing my hands, not getting down and dirty about this...but I will be thinking about you, when I am forced to think about you - type of things. 

As I continued to reflect on the verse, what I got was - we should not just to put on armor to protect/insulate ourselves from what is happening around us, but putting on the armor includes thinking about others and 'representing them' as we would ourselves.

This might be a stretch - it might not be what Paul was telling them to do...but in our time, in this day and age, there are many types of wars going on, every single day...so it would not hurt to reframe it and ask ourselves - what would putting on the armor for others look like? 

Not everyone can decide to read another book, tell the chapters of their lives that they would like a break, get a Youversion App to substitute the battle that is their daily lives. How can we put on the armor for them?

We all have an option, to either turn off the news, become numb to the wars around us, in our families, in our own lives...or we can put on the armor as Paul directed the Ephesians and making sure that we are doing it for other too...and doing it beyond hashtags. 

I do not have answers. 

I was in the middle of reflection, started writing and this ended up being a blog post...The question I am trying to answer is - How can I, how can we, put on armor, that not only protects us, but actively protects them too? What things can we do either in a big way, or in small everyday ways, to not just stand in the gap with 'thoughts and prayers' but to be those 'hands and feet' here on earth, here and now? Reframed, if I was caught up in war, how would I like others to put on the armor for me?

I hope to add onto this post or do sequel posts with some of the 'answers' I come up with. 

Until then, remember to put on that Ephesians 6:10-18 armor, and to include others.

Sending love and light,