Japan is a pretty safe place, but a sensationalist news media is fanning fear for personal safety. And the Japanese are responding. One fashion designer is developing a skirt that opens up to disguise the wearer as a vending machine, leading a would-be assailant to run right by. There are no reports of the skirt actually preventing any attacks, but in at least one test it was convincing enough that people walking along the sidewalk apparently didn't notice the wearer.
Farfetched? Maybe. Lots of people think using spiritual resources for protection are pretty farfetched too, but they can offer protection that no vending-machine skirt can match—not even a Kevlar one.
"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil," St. Paul writes. He then continues, getting to the heart of what we need to protect ourselves from: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:11, 12). Elsewhere he puts it this way (II Cor. 10:3–5):For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. . . .
So it's really not people we have to protect ourselves from, and it's not material disguises or weaponry that we need. "Imaginations"—any way of thinking that's not in line with God and His goodness—and the notion that such "principalities" have power—these are what we have to fight against and protect ourselves from.
How do we do that? Paul shows the way (Eph. 6:13–17):Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. . . .
We do it by keeping our thought focused on God. This doesn't mean simply thinking "God God God God God" as we go about our days. No, it means understanding what God is and who we are as His spiritual expression. For instance, having our "loins girt about with truth" means that we realize that God, good, is Truth itself; the goodness that is God is the actual truth of our existence, so evil must be false, totally divorced from our existence. This is the way to defend ourselves against evil. "Having on the breastplate of righteousness" doesn't mean that we go around proclaiming how wonderful we are; rather, it means that we have the humility to let God's goodness be expressed through us rather than thinking we always know what's best. We best defend ourselves by understanding God's goodness, our expression of that goodness, the peace that comes with that, and so on. And with this understanding comes faith in it—faith in God's goodness and in the totality of His goodness. With that faith, we can defuse any evil on the streets.
Does this really work? Yes. People are proving it to one degree or another every day. They're following Christ Jesus' example. He was able to walk safely through a mob intent on killing him (see Luke 4:28–31), and he was able to calm a stormy atmosphere that threatened to sink the ship he was in (see Mark 4:35–41). He was protected by understanding God's nature and his own as God's image and likeness (see Gen. 1:26, 27). And this protected others too.
"The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe," we read in the Proverbs (18:10). In the Bible, name often means nature. Running into God's nature—understanding what He is and the goodness that flows from Him—is a better, surer defense than a disguise that makes us look like a vending machine. As Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, writes, "Into His [God's] haven of Soul there enters no element of earth to cast out angels, to silence the right intuition which guides you safely home" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 152). Nothing can tear us away from God and the safety inherent in Him. It's safety we can depend on.
Link
The New York Times — "Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place" (registration required)
