I love both Star Trek and Star Wars. I think we should establish that early on and you should just come to terms with it so we can move forward. I’m an equal opportunity sci-fi nerd.
Because I love resolution and happy endings, ROTJ (That’s “Return of the Jedi” to you who don’t speak Star Wars abbreviations) is my favorite of the movies. I don’t really speak of the prequels without shuddering or giving myself nightmares but the original trilogy and episode 7 (thanks, J.J.) speak to my guts and heart and big toes and just all of me.
The blog’s name is a reference to a scene in ROTJ. Anyone know it?
I chose this name after waking up from a particularly powerful dream. What do we really face life with? A house? A job? A little private school where everybody knows your name…. That’s what I faced life with. I was armed with these things and held tightly to them. We love Jesus and each other and are grateful for good health and strong teeth and running shoes and ice cream. We wave the flag and say a prayer before meals. That stuff anchored me. It defined me and protected me. My weapon of choice? For too long it has been my sanctioned, quiet, normal, very predictable life. I made it and like it and I was super-duper comfy in it.
I write Armed Only With This to celebrate the moments in life when we aren’t armed with all the usual trappings but instead are doing something so unheard of that others shake their heads or mutter under their breaths or send texts to mutual friends that say “let’s pray for the Wellmans this week.” Armed Only With THIS—this one earthly life, this one husband/best friend, this one brainiac fourth grader and one precious (and precocious) first grader. This ONE faith that swells when we rely solely on it instead of boxing it neatly up only to be used on Sunday mornings.
THIS. Our adventure is about finding more “this” in our lives. I don’t want to be armed with the mundane and ordinary, the everyday. I want to be armed only with this—my faith in God’s plan and those He saw fit to gift to me along the way.
Oh! Linn and I leaked when I read this to him, because we KNOW. We’ve been there, and just reading us makes us want to do it all over again. It’s going to be so fun reading your updates, and it will help bring back to life those precious moments we lived nearly ten years ago. Praying you will SEE God all along the way!
Yea!! This is Matt James’ girlfriend Amanda. After constant pestering, he finally sent me the link. Looks like I have some catching up to do. Can’t wait!