The Battle of Cinder Block Hill Circa 1983

Don't you just love friends, really good friends that you can share anything with and they don't look at you like you had three heads?  I have been blessed to have a couple of those in my life.  For me they are a rare breed because, usually, I do have three heads at any given time and it's difficult to find someone who can be temporary blind at will.  I was sitting with one such friend recently and the subject turned to our childhoods and the adventures we had back then.  I shared a story with her and I wanted to share here with my on-line friends......

When I was a young teen, my church rented a campground every year up in the north Georgia mountains and we had camp.  I have some really fond memories of those camps, and some not so fond memories, but that's for another time, probably with a good therapist.   It was not a fancy sort of place.  The "cabins" we slept in were, in actuality, long, narrow cinder block buildings with a few mesh covered windows that allowed for zero air movement.  After standing in the August heat in Georgia they were transformed into ovens in which we slowly cooked ourselves every night. 

The showers and bathrooms were also cinder block.  They were one big building divided down the middle by, yet another, cinder block wall, but this wall didn't actually go all the way up to the ceiling.  It stopped a couple of feet short so we could hear everything that went on over on the boys side and they could hear us.  One evening, we were getting ready for bed and the boys were all yelling stuff over at us and we were harassing them back.  All the girls finally finished up and left to go to their cabins except for me.  The boys didn't realize I was there and could still hear them.  I listened as they plotted a water balloon raid on both the girls cabins that night.  I didn't start to get worried until their counselor came in and I was shocked to learn he was in on it.  I stayed and listened like a good spy and heard all the details.

I was so excited! We finally had one up on the boys and could beat them at their own game, or so I thought.  I ran to one of the girls cabins and told them what I had heard.  I explained they needed to shut the shutters on their windows to keep the water balloons out.  There was more hole than mesh on those windows and their beds were right by the windows so they were going to be in mortal danger from boy propelled missiles of water!  I stood there in total disbelief when not one of the believed me.  (I think it may have had something to do with the giant spiders I had managed to slip under a couple of pillows earlier in the week)  I then ran to my own cabin and was met with the same lack of faith there.  Never the less, I went around myself and closed all the shutters while being yelled at and fussed at the whole time by those residing with me in my little cinder block oven. 

Just about the time I settled into bed I heard the first balloon hit the side of the building.  We sat, hot, but dry and listened as they boys relentlessly pummeled our cabin to no avail.  The other cabin was not so lucky.  By the time they figured our I had been telling the truth, it was too late.  Their beds were soaked and so were they!  If only they had listened to the word of the Lord what I had told them!

We laughed, my friend and I, as I retold this story and others about the times I had at the camp in Taccoa GA.  Later, as I thought back on it, my brain did it's own little tilty thing again and I saw it all in a different light.  How important is it to position ourselves in such a place so the Lord can reveal to us the plans of the enemy?  Sometimes, if we are in the right place at the right time, the Lord will pull back the veil and we will see what the devil has in mind for us or for a loved one.  What better way to thwart that than to know in advance what's coming?  This happens if we allow the Lord to guide us, to put us where he wants us, and if we have our ears attuned to hear what we need to. 

Make no mistake about it, we are in a war and our enemy is not throwing water balloons.  He's armed with fiery darts and he doesn't hesitate to shoot them at the beloved of God. (that's us, in case you were wondering....)   How successful would a military campaign be if you knew in advance every move your opponent was planning to make?  So it is that sometimes the Lord lets us see the direction the darts are going to come from so we can get our shields of faith up and ready to defend ourselves and even, when directed by the Lord, what direction to go on the offensive in.  Can you imagine the surprise of those boys if I had been able to convince the girls I wasn't trying to play a joke on them and we had responded with water balloons of our own? 

There's no discharge from the Lord's army and there is no administrative duties either. I know, I admit I have asked for a desk job before!  My goal this week is going to be to try to allow myself to be positioned by the Holy Spirit so when he reveals things I am in the place to hear it.  I don't want to let my guard down and get smacked in the back of the head with a spiritual water balloon because I'm not where I need to be.  Where are you today?  Are you listening hard to the Spirit of the Lord concerning how to proceed in this war we call life?   Do you hear him when the word comes to close up your shutters because there's shelling coming and you need to call in God's napomb?  So stay close, listen up and let the Lord guide you. 

Until next time I'll be here, shinning my shield, collect balloons and planning a revenge many years in the making! 

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor