Fallen Sword...knights abandoned

For days now I've been pondering this post. You see it started with the sword above. It was left by some of the boys that are in the apartment complex that I live in. They often play all over the different units, in the middle grassy area and the two stair wells across the grass area.

I've seen the boys play on the two stair wells as if the two stairs were ships and they were pirates at war, with the grass a sea, tumultuous and deadly. They've played cops and robbers...though they probably didn't call it that, but I remember similar games played by my brothers and his friends. The stairs become the mountains the robbers run to hide in....and then there are games they play, scenes enacted where I watch and wonder, not sure what the premise is, but watching their childhood play out.

I love kids, and their minds and how they interact with each other and the world. I grew up in a house and not an apartment, and so I am a bit fascinated by the games they play here...games that spawned the length and breadth of an entire neighborhood for my brothers....though they sometimes played just around one house...but for big wars the whole neighborhood was fair game to race, run, and hide in; but for these boys it is an apartment complex.

I don't have tons of time to watch them, most times it's for no more than two minutes. I have no idea how old they are...this group of boys. However this past two weeks there was intense game that was played, and sustained....the same plot ran for days...and from what I could tell they were knights. They brought out their swords, instead of their guns, and fought and yelled and pursued each other through, I'm sure, daring quests, and dangerous battles where the fate of the world fell to them, to their sword fight....they fought up and down the stairs, and across the grass and up and down the other stairs, and back....pausing for dinner and curfew...to resume again the next afternoon.

So on Wednesday afternoon as I took a break from my work to walk around outside I didn't think too much about the sword that was fallen and seemingly forgotten at the top of the third flight of stairs in "main stair well two". I assumed that the battle would pick up later this afternoon and the kids would find this sword, a prize possession of a mighty knight...and an active imagination of a boy...so much more than the plastic and simple form.

Wednesday passed quietly, and Thursday slipped away, and Friday fell by the way side...and Saturday slid by as well. The sword still lays forgotten, the boys have must have been caught...perhaps held prisoner...or could it be...the sword no longer matters and they've found other battle fields?

And I honestly do not know why the sword laying at the top of the stairs has so caught and held me. I tried resisting writing about it, because, after all what could I say about knighthood, or the games boys play or why a sword that saved a kingdom would have been left abandoned, forgotten...is it missed? But I found myself seeing parallels between these young kids and myself...things that I too felt enthralled and consumed by only to have fall from my attention, slip and drop to the wayside...swords abandoned on some proverbial staircase somewhere. I'd like to say that all that I've let slip are things as simple as a pretend game of knighthood....but that is not true.

Some swords I remember loosing, and frantically searching for, how could I have lost something that precious, that vital........

Other times it has been a habit I want to add to my repertoire, the composite base of who I am. And I'm passionate and determined, disciplined and I sustain it, and falsely think I've got this down...only to somehow lapse....and it can be days or weeks before I to have a slowly dawning realization that the habit I was doing so well at last month seems to have....well....when did I do it last? And there is generally the awful recrimination and sorrow, the remorse....and I start all over again to work, to change, to transform.

The other thought that has been pressing in on me as I've walked past this fallen sword is Hebrews 4:12, Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 6:10-18. And I've thought about what it means to be a Christian so captivated by Christ that you pursue Him, across the battlefields of life, up the mountains of opposition, across the seas of doubt and temptations...all for love of Him, all for the love that is within us that is a fire...a calling, a compelled response stemming from the transforming freedom we were granted when we confessed our need for a Savior, believed that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life and the only one...and accepted His grace...the rebirth of ourselves.

NASB (all)

Hebrews 4: 1-2 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Ephesians: 10-18 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against 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. 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. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 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. And take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,"

I found myself asking, do I really pick up this sword daily, do I really carry it with me even if the battlefield appears to be a simple set of stairs, a grassy area, an office, a store...or do I only enter the chapel all dressed and ready...one day a week, two....Do I take seriously this battle that is happening daily, and this battle that isn't a meaningless enactment, a play, but rather is for everything...it is the weight of eternity that is at stake, and the cost is in souls...or have I grown up, am I too mature to profess myself a warrior...a knight...too grown up for games...

Did you know there are 17 verses that speak of swords in the Bible? There are countless images of kingdoms, protectors, guards, shields....the Old Testament is full of warriors, and battles...and the battles of the New Testament are no less real because they took place for the souls of men not just their lives...and this is no less true for us modern day people than it was for the peoples of old.

On Friday night I wasn't really thinking about the blog, or the sword...I'd more or less given up on trying to write a blog about a mock battle and a forgotten toy...I had already tried several times and had not been able to do very much at all, a string of sentences, but a far cry from what I felt was there...so I was surprised when I was reading a friend's web page and they made mention of another page, and I clicked the link and saw a picture and immediately thought of Scott Mutter...not many people know him, but he is a surreal photographer. There are now several samples of his stuff on my blog page because upon seeing this one picture I just HAD to go to see Scott's web page again, to revisit his works.

There I was soaking up the joy I find when I look at his works, when what should happen between one click and the next, well an image popped up, a work of his....that I really don't remember seeing, or had completely forgotten about. It was that of a knight. And I knew I must undertake this blog again. Because the battle is real. This battle, not with the flesh but with the world forces of this darkness...and all the bits and pieces that are now on this blog started to coalesce and yes, we all should pick up our shield of faith, our sword and pray...enter into the battle, fully confident in the Sovereignty of the Lord Jesus.

So what started out with a group of boys, unbeknownst to me, playing an imaginary game, and leaving their sword behind has become now a battle cry of sorts...a sounding, a returning...a discovery and a rediscovery and what a noble, and worthy cause it is...so I can only hope that I am not the only one to respond, to heed the call, to stand firm....to fight.....that this posting has been in any small way a calling out to my brethen and fellow saints, brothers and sisters in Christ....come, let's play...let's fight...let's stand.

God Bless,

~K