The Kevlar of Scripture

 Psalm 33:20 “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.”

Modern soldiers are asked to step on to battlefields where they expect all men to be their enemies, where traps are laid on the streets they walk, and they can never rest in faith that they are safe from attack. The militants are dressed like everyone else, indistinguishable from native allies. Traps take the form of IED's (improvised explosive devices) which are hidden in places where soldiers are expected to be. Unfortunately, life as a young man can be quiet the same when it comes to thought life. No place is safe, few persons can easily be identified as allies.

 

Young women on average are not out there after me. God has blessed me with a plain appearance that neither particularly repulses young women, nor does it attract them. I count this a blessing since I avoid becoming the target of many young “female militants.” I don't mean this term with disrespect to women in general. The young women who fit the label “female militant” in my analogy are a specific type of young women. They are driven to obtain attention, affection, and emotion from attractive young men without regard to the methodology employed. These young women are aware of their ability to exploit young men's weaknesses and dress and act a certain way to take advantage of that weakness. The actions of these young women are by no means responsible for young men failing, young men have problems and need to deal with them. But like a good soldier young men have to be aware to treat women with a respectful and friendly distance that Christ maintained between himself and women during his walk on the earth. 

 

In addition to the “female militants”, society has it's traps for young men as well. The mall, the billboards on the way to college and back, even the adds at home on the computer, they all act like moral IED's. They are placed strategically so as to hit guys and hit them when they are unprepared. It is no coincidence that they are called “Pop up adds.” Their only purpose is to surprise and defeat. 

 

While my problem does not relate to pornography, it does fall in the same general sin area of lust. I have no young women who pursues me, but those who sell their appearance for simply attention, and the moral IED's that perforate this world cause constant damage to my thought life. My thought life constantly spills over into my actions. It is these actions that torture my mind with guilt and break my heart with sorrow. I take them to God, and feel his forgiveness for my actions, but my failure to repent from this type of sin pattern is a constant burden of guilt I face.

Facing these problems, the militants and IED's, as a lone soldier is certain moral death. No modern soldier, however Rambo, could stand alone against the militants overseas or walk without falling pray to the explosive IED's. Just like these soldiers, no young man can stand alone against the forces temptation and lust without falling pray to traps or being overwhelmed by the militants. 

 

I must then ask myself what then can I do to be protected while I am on earth in what is morally speaking enemy territory. I must put on new protection everyday. It is said that even the best of Kevlar (bullet proof vests) vests if hit twice in the same spot can fail to protect the user. I have found myself now carrying a pocket bible and after feeling temptation shoot at my spiritual vest, I pull out my bible to reinforce my Kevlar vest. 

 

I would recommend a pocket bible to every young man, not as a way to appear holy, but as a legitimate tool to provide a reinforcement to their protection in their mind. A walk across my campus is enough to furnish sustained volleys of temptation which wears at my spiritual vest. If I'm early to class, I like to sit down outside of my class room, put in my ear-buds, and focus on reading scripture. Its a reinforcing practice which helps me not only to avoid temptation, but also enables me to make good judgments with respect to things in general.

I have found that in this modern world, with the amount of danger that is out there for young men and the susceptibility I personally have to struggle with lust, the morning and evening reading of scripture just isn't enough. If I get separated from my little “New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs” bible I become apprehensive and worried that I will get shot at, and be unable to stand. I need God's protection, and I trust in His word to find it.

I will make God my protection, my shield, my Kevlar vest...