The Full Armor of God

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggles are not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 10-12 NIV

So how did we get here? You’re probably wondering how I arrived at titling my blog The Style Testimony. Well it’s kind of a long story in progress so here is my testimony. 

It all started one afternoon while I was sitting at my desk at work. It was typical Friday and I was busy with my normal administrative duties. Nothing out of the ordinary was different that morning when I woke up and got ready for work, so I was so confused and nervous as to how I was suddenly experiencing shortness of breath. I tried to ignore the shortness of breath and chalked it up to me just being out of shape, but my instinct told a different story. To say I was afraid was an understatement. However, I knew enough to listen to the small still voice telling me to go to urgent care. 

“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.”- Psalms 29:4 NIV

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I quickly found my supervisor and explained how I was feeling. She tried to find one of the three nurses that was working that day to see if one of them could check my blood pressure; however, none of them were in the office. My supervisor also suggested that I call my primary care doctor to see if I could get a visit which ultimately fell through because my PCP was out of the office and the covering doctor was fully booked. I started to panic and silently said a prayer to God. 

On my way to the urgent care center, I called my mom and updated her on what was going on. We talked for a few minutes until I received a call coming in from my PCP. She had received my message from the office staff and wanted to know exactly what was going on. We discussed my symptoms and she agreed that going to urgent care was the best option. When I arrived at the urgent care center, I waited about 2-3 minutes before checking in and was sent back to one of the patient rooms. I was in the room by myself for another 2-3 minutes when I began praying in my mind to keep my nerves under control. As I silently prayed, a medical assistant walked in to take my vitals. My blood pressure was high as it always is when I got to the doctor because like who seriously wants to be in a doctor’s office for reasons beyond annual checkups. 

Moments after the medical assistant left, the attending doctor came in and asked a few questions. My vitals were taken again and checked my lungs and confirmed that they were clear. He said that if anything, it sounded like I was developing an upper respiratory infection. No sooner than the words left his mouth, he asked me if I had ever had thyroid issues or if I had ever felt cold for no reason. In the moment I said no because nothing had come to the surface as being relevant. The doctor proceeded to tell me that my thyroid felt enlarged and that he wanted to give me a referral to have a sonogram done. 

I was speechless. Relieved that I received a solution for my shortness of breath but curious as to what to expect from the sonogram. I did not know what to expect but while heading to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for my inhaler, I suddenly remembered that I did have a suspected issue with my thyroid when I was in my senior year of college which at the time was 9 ½ years prior. Everything with that experience turned out okay and I didn’t think about it because no other doctor had mentioned or suspected that I had an issue with my thyroid. 

A few  days later, I went to my sonogram appointment for my thyroid. I was nervous but confident that the scan would be normal and that would be the end of my worries with my thyroid. When it was my turn to have the scan, I followed my sonogram tech to the room and took off my sweater and necklace. The tech was nice and she talked me through what she was going to do which only took a few minutes. The tech took images of both sides of my thyroid and finally told me that she was done and sent me on my way telling me that the ordering doctor should have my results in 2-3 days.  I didn’t worry. I felt confident that nothing was wrong with me so I went on with my day unbothered. 

Some key points to take away from this part of my story is that while I always believed in God, my relationship was kind of absent and only on a as needed basis. I’ve been in church all my life, but I was not giving my homeboy Christ the much needed time he deserved. Which takes me to the second part of the story that will be discussed in another post. 

 So tell me, can you relate to moments like this with uncertainties with your health? Is your relationship intact with Christ or are you on an as needed basis? No judgement, we’re all friends here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.