Lookin' Like a Fool

I was recently asked to be a guest blogger on a friend of mine's blog. His name is Joseph and he is a youth director in South Carolina. The following was my first post to his blog from this past week.

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I live and work in the Atlanta area, so when I heard of General Larry Platt’s audition on American Idol this season, I took great pride in his representation of my beloved city. Actually “pride” might be the wrong word. Truthfully, while I did find his audition entertaining, I worried what the world might think of the rest of Atlanta’s citizens.

All worry and speculation aside, Larry speaks a profound Biblical truth when he sings: “Lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground. Walkin’…Talkin’ with your pants on the ground.”

Do I have your attention? Allow me to explain:

I’ve been walking my youth through Ephesians 6:10-17; What the Armor of God is comprised of and how we go about “suiting up,” so to speak. The first piece of said armor is the belt of truth. Now at first I balked at the idea of considering a belt a piece of armor. However, if you read theNKJV interpretation, its place amongst the other pieces becomes clearer as “gird” can be defined as “to arm.”

I asked my kids why they thought truth was so important to the armor. Our ultimate response was because without truth, we are faking it. Without sincerity attached to our beliefs and what they ask of us, we are not being truthful to what we claim to subscribe to as Christians. And when we get caught in this lie, it is like being caught with our pants on the ground. We feel exposed and embarrassed.

This belt of truth…this call to make tangible in our lives the beliefs we hold in our hearts and minds…is all important. Without it, we might as well forget about the other pieces of armor because the truth is that with our metaphorical pants around our ankles we are immobile (I mean, have you ever tried to run with your pants at your ankles? Not an easy feat, let me tell you.). We are stagnant. We become what God calls lukewarm in Revelation 3:16; neither hot nor cold. We even play into the Christian stereotype of the hypocrite as we say one thing but act on another.

It’s time we pick our pants up off the ground and secure them with the belt of truth; to not be found wanting of the fruits of the Spirit, but to rather keep in step with Him. Otherwise, we’re lookin’ like fools with our pants on the ground.