My Strong Tower

This is a tad bit formal due to it actually being turned in as homework, nonetheless I thought you'd enjoy.

My Strong Tower

On March 27, 2012 I experienced something that I am not taking pride in, I am not fearful of, and I am not shameful of. The only words I could begin to describe my state would be quoting Galatians 6:14, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” This can begin to express how I was feeling that night.

I’d been talking to my friend Anna, conversing over some things happening in our Bible study. It was around 10:30, I had permission to talk to Anna after her cellular curfew, and I was kind of getting lost in the pouring of my heart. Anyway, I cannot stay still when I talk passionately, so I walked to the front of the yarn shop near the highway up my street. There was a bench there, the same one I’ve sat on, prayed on, thought on, and cried on so many times. As I sat talking, I could see in my peripheral vision a figure slowly walking toward me. Instinctively I leisurely stood up and tried to express to the figure through my body language that I wasn’t scared, nor was I welcoming his presence. I continued talking to Anna, changing subject to something I wouldn’t have to think about that much.

I could see clearly now the person did not intend on leaving my bench. I had been pacing back and forth while talking to Anna, and as I did I moved farther and farther from the man. Finally I slowly made to go and turned toward the street from the parking lot. As I walked I heard an object whistling through the air and I tensed. Tumbling end over end I glanced back and saw a box of rotten vegetables clearly thrown at me by the dark figure. Shrugging it off as not to further anger the subject I turned and kept walking.

Walking slowly in the direction of my house I glanced around for something reflective. Glancing around I saw a metallic object wrapped around a telephone pole. Discreetly peering at it as I walked I could see the subject quickly following me. While all this commenced I had still been talking to Anna, keeping her unaware that I was worried in case the man would hear me. Anyway, I slowly turned around and lowered my phone clicking the end call button as I did.

I faced the man asking, “Hey man can I help you?”

Walking closer to me, close enough that I could smell the nicotine on his breath he exhaled deeply. I tried to keep from choking and coughing as he said, “What’re you doing on my street?” his voice growled, but I could see he couldn’t be older than twenty.

Replying as calmly as possible I said, “I live here.”

“Which house?” he replied

Worriedly I reapplied, “I don’t have to tell you that.”

“Why Not?”

“Why should I”

“Why not?” he repeated.

I knew what he wanted but I replied, “I’m sorry I don’t understand.”

Then the man reached into his coat, a place I had visually checked earlier, and kept his hand their, insinuated that he had a firearm. However, I knew he did not, I looked there earlier, and the coat he was wearing was tight, I knew he didn’t have a gun.

Then he said threateningly, “Go back to your spot, the bench, now.”

Slowly I walked up the hill toward the bench glancing back to see him watching with his hand still hidden in his coat.

Finally I reached the bench, and stood behind a large dement pole. From this defensive position I looked toward the man and watched him turn onto another street heading toward a residential area. Slowly then, I walked, making sure he could not see me toward my house. On the way I redialed my phone.

Anna answered saying, “You get mugged?”

“Sure, something like that.” I replied.

The one thing I can take pride in from this story, is the cross of Jesus Christ. For he kept me safe, and never once during this time, did I doubt, for I knew my Lord was with me. It says in his word,

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” –Proverbs 18:10

Open like a Book

First of all, when I said in my blog description that these posts would not be about me.......directly, that was an implication. I expect that you all understand what it means, but just in case you don't I am going to further clarify so I don't look like a heretic. What I was implying was that my posts will not be about me, rather they will be about Jesus Christ in me. However, what I write about will be indeed constrained to this physical body, and will reference things that it has experienced, but what I attempt to express is not about these tired sinews¹, but rather about the living fire inside of me. 


Now that that is out of the way I would like to tell you a story, or rather a testimony. As you read you may scoff about its insignificance, but to me this is another personal recognition of where I am in my faith, and I Praise Jesus for it and no other.


Tonight at Bible study we discussed temptation. All the scriptures we discussed had been words I had relied on and turned to for guidance hundreds of times in my life, so you could say they were familiar. The leader of the Bible Study knew this too, for he had been one of the persons I had relied on in my time of distress. Because of where I've come to through the power of God he trustes me to be able to communicate what these scriptures actually mean to the few different guys I talked to. 


So we split into groups of one teen, and one junior higher. We read through the verses given, which were James 1:13-15, Psalms 119:9-11, and John 14:15, and analyzed them. They are fairly simple verses and we found the answers easily to the questions he had asked us. 


In this time I worked with 3 of the junior highers just making sure they understood what the scriptures meant. In that I expected them to tell me how to apply it to their lives and made sure they understood the verses enough to do so. 


Now all of this was quite a long back story, but this is the part of the story that rocked me and brought incredible joy to my heart:


Out of the three boys I worked with, the youngest one of them is this cool guy named Kendel (This could be spelled incorrectly, correct me those of you who know in the comments please). He took a little while to process the real meaning of the scripture, but he got it down solid eventually. Now he's a curious kid as a lot of kids his age are, but no one can dislike him for it, he's just so great! Anyway, in this time of pouring over the Word together there was a high level of bonding between us that I could see he didn't even realize, but I saw it and encouraged it and went with it. 


Anyway, even this is backstory, but here is where it hits:


Our leader was closing it up gradually, and giving encouragements and I could see that Kendel was sitting there with a bland expression on his face. Completely uninterested in what our leader had to say his eyes were searching the room for something to amuse him and finally stumbled upon a notebook I saw sitting right next to him. That notebook was my notebook. And as an innocent oblivious young kid does I'm sure he thought to himself, "Oh a notebook! Cool! I bet whatever is in here is way more amusing that whatever this leader guy is saying." 


As I saw these quick events unfold one right after the other my heart stopped for a second. For if you've ever had a notebook, a journal, or a diary you know that it's yours. Anyone else that touches it might get a legion of knuckles thrown their way. However, my heart resumed. 


This is where an incessant smile lit my face. 


My notebook is my life. I write where I am, what I am, where I want to be, who I want to be with, everything. I'm sure you can relate. You expose yourself for you are in your notebook. Your notebook holds your secrets, and will never purposely betray you by revealing them to someone else. Unless, someone finds that book, and reads it. 


And as Kendel opened that book and innocently flipped through the first few pages a growing joy spread over me. For I was finally open and transparent. Everything that I am I trusted to that kid. Not necessarily because he was trust worthy, but because I have something in my notebook that I'd never had before. 


I'd written freedom in those pages.






¹ Quote from the 5ᵗʰ  line of "For Righteousness' Sake" by Jesse Lasley - http://jessecoulonlasleypoems.blogspot.com/2012/02/for-fighteousness-sake.html

OMG

You may be wondering why the blog name is what it is. Especially if you know me. There's a really good reason for it that I really should tell you about sometime.