Broken Yet Fortified

I thank the Lord God that I have never experienced combat or been under fire in any way. I have the utmost respect for the men and women who currently or previously served in our military or as officers of the law. I am grateful for their service and their sacrifice. Make no mistake; they all sacrifice to protect their brothers and sisters in arms, their families, our communities, and the country they love. At the bare minimum, they sacrifice time with family, and yet far too many pay the ultimate sacrifice with their lives. They all give up what an average citizen considers a normal life to serve, and most give up the chance of ever having that normal life. Instead these selfless souls soldier on baring the scares of their service with injured bodies, broken minds, and even distressed inner peace. My gratitude for them is boundless and I pray for them daily.  

As a teenager, I desired to serve in the Navy as a combat pilot, however, with my math skills or lack thereof, I didn't qualify for such an opportunity. My fallback plan was to become a police officer but that wasn't in my future either. I had my first of several strokes in my early twenties, turning my life upside down and my dreams of uniformed service vanished. 

The next twenty-something years would be defined by my own fractured mind and unsettled inner peace. My chronic illness would be how the Devil would try to define me and dictate the battles that I face. Satan's schemes against me consist of migraines, uncontrolled hypertension, tachycardia, dysautonomia, kidney and liver disease, digestion issues, anxiety, and depression. He is crafty in his planning, fighting dirty by attacking my mind, body, and spirit.

A stroke would impair my speech making it difficult to communicate. It would restrict my physical abilities, cause weakness in my limbs, and paralysis in my fingers impairing my ability to grip and hold things. The migraines, tachycardia, and hypertension instigated by my dysautonomia would make it seem impossible to get out of bed and do simple chores around the house much less leave my home to watch my children play soccer or to stand up before a congregation to speak. The sudden need to rush to the restroom and more often than not not making it before soiling my pants didn't help either. I would slowly heal and pick myself up just before a series of T.I.A.'s (Transient Ischemic Attacks) or another full-blown stroke would slap me down again. Time and time again I would have to learn to pull together the shattered pieces and try to reassemble the perfect picture of the so-called normal life, yet to this day at the stone's throw of fifty years old, I still don't know what that looks like. However, now I understand that the picture of a normal life is yet another thing that will be forever beyond my grasp and I am finally at peace with that. 

Yes, over the last half-century, I would gain a thriving ministry and a wholesome family and then lose them both, but the one thing that I have never lost was the never-ending love of my Heavenly Father. The family I began is no longer whole but the family I was born into had never left my side. My former wife has moved on but my children are in my life and I have been blessed with another family as well. The ministry that was before is now a field of sown seeds that has now blossomed. and a new ministry is ahead of me. 

No, the battle has not yet been won. I have not found a way to become infalable to sin. I do not possess an infrangible mind, my body has not yet healed or become invulanable to future strokes but my spirit is a different story. It is fortified because I stand firm under the protection of the Full Armor of God. Through daily prayer, I am strenghten by the Holy Spirit and because of the blood of Jesus Christ I am redeemed. 

When I was young and nieve I thought that a pefect normal life was the image of beautiful family posing together on the beach with their bare feet in the sand and expressing their unbreakable love through the beaming smiles on their faces. A piture of  unity, harmony, happiness and solace they find in each other. The  rruth is very few families in this world ever get to expierence that for a moment much less through their entire lives. Instead, this world is a not just a struggle agianst the physical world but against spiritual forces. 

The physical struggles are temporary but the spiritual ones have eternal consecquences. The normal here is not a perfect picture at all. The only perfection you will find is in Eternaty in Heaven.  

To learn more look for future post on this blog or contact Robert through the Contact Page on the Resurrected Roamer website www.RaisedUpInHim.com. 

The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against [e]flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 [f]in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 [g]With all prayer and petition [h]pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, [i]be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,