At the end of my last post on this subject I said “So what has all this to do with leading myself into trouble?” and that I’d explain …

Well let me try to explain.

Because I am a logical and practical person almost anything that requires some form or organising comes easily to me. Secondly because of these traits I find I can analyse most situations and provide a useful solution (read answer) even if ultimately my way is not the best way at least I’ve contributed. This is my working life. I have to analyse, I have to organise and sift through facts that appear random and disparate and then I have to try and come up with a solution. Due to it being my professional life I tend to fall into the trap of thinking it was all me and I forget about God.

I forget that God was the one whom gifted me with the ability to analyse, the patience to soft and ask question after question and then the insight to see a way forward. I forget. I admit it, I’m human and I forget that my God is the one behind everything I do whether I acknowledge him or not.

In forgetting this in my professional life it can easily transfer over into the specific things I do for the Church. I don’t ever intend this to be the case but unfortunately it happens.

I want to serve my God with all my heart.

I want to serve my God with the right heart attitude.

And most of all I want what I do to shower the glory back to Him.

But Stuart I hear you shout … what has all this to do with being an armour bearer? OK, I guess I haven’t filled that bit in yet. First, what is an armour bearer? Well in Biblical terms it is someone whom “actually carried the shield and armor of his leader as he went into battle, often acting as his personal assistant” (taken from ezine articles) and it derives from a Hebrew word (I forget which at the moment) which literally translates as “to help, support or lift up“.

In my vision I state that “I am called to be an armour and standard bearer” and in this I see myself as someone who supplies help and/or support (I guess lifting as well) to those in need of technical assistance. I am now, thankfully, the first port of call for many of my friends who want to know how to do something or want to check if yet another email is a hoax or a real virus threat. Additionally I provide technical repair services where needed, video creation and editing, and so on and I do all this gladly and freely. I’ve worked with people whom charge their own family per hour to fix faults!!!

Beyond the obvious help and support, I also see myself as someone whom stands in the gap for my pastor technically. Armour bearers (the name sort of gives it away) would literally carry their masters armour and were often called upon to stand in the line of fire. Again from the same ezine article, armour bearers are “called to attend to, minister to, care for, help, be of use, assist, benefit, promote, support, make easy for, nourish, and encourage their leader”.

Hopefully you can start to see the what and why of my thinking and my belief structure. In part 1 of this post I quoted from Terry Nance, author of God’s Armorbearer – the quote basically said do all with a right attitude. Actually that’s not quite right … being an armour bearer is an attitude! In knowing this one can make the jump to knowing you can have the right attitude in tough times. A lot of Terry’s book looks at Elijah and Elisha – Elisha got his double portion by being an armour bearer first and foremost. He got it because he started (and finished) with no ulterior motive.

He wasn’t trying to get one over on Elijah. He wasn’t trying to score any cheap victories or do things half heartedly. He kept himself humble and in the end he reaped his just reward. This is my fear, that in my humanness and busyness and my professionalism I forget to remain humble, I forget to honour the One that should be honoured above all, I forget to serve and mostly I forget to have the right attitude. This is my stumbling block.

I started out by saying I know what I can do and what I’m good at. So my challenge is how do I manage that knowledge with the process of remaining humble and continuing to serve any whom ask to the best of my God given ability? I have to remember that I am called to a high place so that I may lay down my desires for my ministry in order to fulfill someone else’s.

How I do this I don’t know.