Richard dressed carefully for his lunch meeting with the boss later in the day.  He fumed as he navigated thru the traffic on his way to work.  This morning seemed especially bad for out-of-their-mind drivers.  Did they all think they could drive like Mario Andretti?  He sputtered words he said only on the way to and from work or when he slammed his thumb in the car door or other such occasions.   It was 30 degrees outside and he turned on the air conditioning.  He was sure the steam escaping his ears had something to do with the temperature in the car. 

Lunch time arrived and he jumped into his boss’s car.  They were going to a newly opened restaurant across town.  He buckled up and prepared for the ride of his life as his boss drove a newer model Porsche.  They exited onto the six-lane freeway and his boss accelerated the car to match the flow of traffic.  Richard looked at the speed-limit sign; 75mph.  He glanced over at the speedometer; 65mph.  He was puzzled.  Speed limit 75mph.  Speed of Porsche 65mph.  Sure traffic was heavy,  but why wasn’t his boss making the little car go?  Look there was an opening right there, and then they could zoom into that spot up there, this was worse than his morning drive to work.  His boss slowed down to let  a few cars go ahead of them as they entered onto the freeway.   Then the driver of the monster truck behind them honked the horn, drove past, and making a quick short turn cut in front of them.  A moment later the monster truck driver rolled down his truck window and yelled out words Richard himself had used just a few hours before. 

Richard could feel the steam beginning to boil within his head again.  He glanced over at his boss and wondered how he could remain so calm.  His boss glanced over at him and smiled.  “So what are you thinking?”  he asked.  Richard replied as calmly as he could said, “How do you stay so calm in all this crazy traffic?  It’s like you have the iron will of Superman!.”  His boss loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar.  Richard could see that he was wearing armor under his clothes.  “I put it on every morning and you should too.”  The boss pushed a few buttons and the following passage appeared on a screen in front of Richard:

Ephesians 6:11-18

 ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.