SHE brings her shield

Last Friday, I joined the hundreds of other cars leaving from work to head towards South Bay. I was going to go see my friends who I jointly call the Fremont Twins for another Chik-Fil-A fix and Fireside Chat.

While my mind was predominantly fixated on the thought of inhaling my normal order of an 8-count entree, large waffle fries, and water (to cancel out the calories), I couldn’t shake the memory of my last trip down to Fremont....

SPOILER ALERT:

A dead tree falls on my car and gets totaled.

Anxiety and hunger are now equally dominate in my mind as I reach Fremont city limits. Am I making a mistake?

After eating the Lord’s breaded poultry, I took the familiar route to their apartment. Flashbacks of that cold and rainy night are beaming in my mind. As I ease into their parking lot, I begin to take instant inventory of potentially dead or dying trees. Although, my dead tree assessment was completely based on a completely binary rating (leaves vs. no leaves) I found some confidence to park in front of a tree that looked like it planned to stick around for a while. And then I prayed.

If my car was a person it probably would have peeped one eye open to look at this girl who was rebuking trees and branches from behind the steering wheel. But it was all I had. A prayer.

I didn’t want to operate out of fear. The fireside chats had to continue. I definitely wasn’t going to stop going to one of the few Chik-Fil-As in the entire Bay Area. And I definitely couldn’t Uber/Lyft an hour away.

I had to approach my past head on so I could move forward.

“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

‭‭Ephesians ‭6:16‬

The flaming arrows of life may exist but they can be extinguished by faith!

I have faith that regardless of the weather around me and what threatens to take me out- like my car, He is MORE than capable of restoring what was lost and trading my fear for faith. To go to the same place that was meant to scare me and deter me from growing. That night my friends spoke some soul moving words into my life that would have been missed if I never went back.

Your past may be marked with events and experiences that make you want to avoid intimate relationships with others or certain settings like church. Yes, you were hurt, but your pain was not meant to hold you prisoner. Whether you need to settle your past or finally move forward, GO! But this time...don’t forget your shield!