where waves grow sweet

He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Psalm 18:34

I’m very girly in many ways. I love French, ballet, twirly skirts, and pretty things that dangle from my ears. But there is also a warrior side to me. I realize that a warrior in twirly skirts sounds a bit contradictory, but I think there can be a heck of a lot of strength behind femininity. Think Deborah in the Bible or Arwen in Lord of the Rings.

A while back I had a dream in which I was going to have some sort of duel with satan. Leaning against a white wall, apparently provided by God, was a silver crossbow as tall, if not taller, than me. It was wide in the middle where it flared out like mirrored wings, and looked angelically bad-ass. Rather than shooting arrows, it launched a bolt that exploded in magnificent light on impact. Mighty in a way I can’t describe. And it was mine to use.

In the dream, satan used a weaponless smirking intimidation on me. I was taken off guard by his seeming confidence and, instead of grabbing that freaking powerful crossbow and nailing him with it, I nervously fingered some earphones and tried to get feedback from well-meaning background people. Not my best warrior moment.

Upon waking, I saw only my own fear, but later realized that the greater fear belongs to satan. He is absolutely, positively terrified that we will stand up in our rightful authority as children of a God who conquered death itself. He is petrified that we will grab our weapons and start demolishing the strongholds he’s worked so hard to erect.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Cor 10:3-4

If you saw the holes I left in the ceiling at the shooting range (yes, the ceiling), you would know that I’m not interested in being the sort of warrior who fights with guns… or even crossbows. [Was that a sigh of relief?] But I am intensely interested in taking down the darkness the foul enemy has constructed in the hearts of God’s people… with crossbows of the divine sort that will “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” But you just might find me doing it in a twirly skirt and  lip gloss.