by Kevin Burton
Some of us, as high school seniors, went to classes called “College Prep.,” and what an honor that was. Somebody thought we were “college material.”
One of my teachers, can’t remember which one, clued me in on what might be coming just around the corner by getting creative with my grades. Can’t remember what the assignment was either, but I remember reading that the grade I was getting was an A, but the grade I could expect in college for work of a similar quality was a B-minus.
Teachers started telling me about “the real world” that existed outside the gates of the Ohio State School for the Blind.
Well I chose McPherson College for my real-world experience, a good choice, but a funny thing happened there. The professors also started talking to me about “the real world.”
I said (to myself) wait a minute, I thought this was the real world. What gives?
At both schools I got a message that was re-enforced by my father that I needed to “dress for success.” I needed to look sharp, to stand out among my peers, or at least not to fall behind them.
Well at the time I knew everything that was worth knowing and was all-too-pleased to break it down for anybody who needed the benefit of my superior knowledge. I had a rock-and-roll heart and, like Neil Diamond, made plans for a life, “forever in blue jeans.”
All these things began bouncing around my mind after a recent conversation with my mother. She talks a lot about the way people dress – that women don’t wear dresses anymore. She says when she wears what she considers an ordinary blouse and skirt, people think she is “dressed up.”
Think of Mary Tyler Moore on the Dick Van Dyke Show. Think of a 50s housewife on commercials for God knows what, doing their vacuuming in a dress and high heels.
They were dressing for success, I guess.
So maybe Mom is stuck in her time element, and I am stuck in mine. But one thing has happened for sure over the years. I have learned to re-define what is “success” and what is “the real world.”
If you need a little help in that regard, with that definition, try sitting as I did two months ago, in a room with a loved one (my sister) lying on a bed that you know, barring divine intervention, they are never getting up from.
Try measuring as I did, life and eternity in days, hours, minutes.
In that moment, Heaven and Hell got inescapably, with immediacy, real, to the exclusion of all else.
I do hope to look into what the Bible has to say about the true “real world,” the afterlife that goes far beyond our 70-80 or so years we get on earth.
But today I want to fucus on defining success and dressing for success. So this kids, is the most circuitous introduction for the Apostle Paul’s “full armor of God” passage that you have ever seen!
Paul’s imagery had nothing to do with college or the business world. He wrote about going into battle with the weapons in common use at the time. He knew that Christians, whether they liked it or not, would by necessity engage in spiritual warfare.
He wrote to the people of Ephesus, driving home his point in terms he knew they would understand. So all these years later, try not to trip over the talk of armor as you read Ephesians 6:10-18. Understand that the spiritual battle is real and they you as a Christian must engage in it.
This is not College Prep, this is Heaven Prep.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”
“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Eph 6: 10-18 NKJV).
That’s dressing for success in a hostile spiritual world, where “the rulers of the darkness of this age” would not just compete with you for the supposedly almighty dollar, but block you from the knowledge of salvation, available through belief in Jesus Christ.
There is Heaven, there is Hell. Your time, my time, is coming. The stakes are high, aren’t they?
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