What hidden cash has to do with the…Helmet of Salvation, Preview

A few years ago, my wife’s great aunt passed away. She lived in Michigan where my wife’s mother’s side of the family is from. My wife’s great aunt was single, had a long career as a teacher, and was also joyful and bright. As most of us do, she also had a quirky side. For example, before she passed, she left instructions for the family to search the house, as she had hidden cash in many places.

She didn’t want any foreign powers to disrupt the banking system and steal her money. So she bought small sections of metal pipe, maybe four inches long, and had their ends threaded so they could be capped. Then she filled the pipes with rolled up cash and hid them all over the house. Years went by, and she forgot how many she made and where she hid them. After her passing, family members looked and looked and found thousands of dollars. They never knew if they found all of it.

My wife’s aunt was saving her money. To be precise, she was saving her money from something. She wasn’t really saving her money for anything. She could have been saving the money for a vacation, for home improvements, or to be more generous than she already was. Instead, she focused on saving that hidden cash from disaster.

My wife’s aunt’s approach to saving money has echoes to a Christian theological view of salvation. Her desire to safeguard her money, to have a sizeable amount of cash in case disaster struck, is not all wrong. I admit there is wisdom to planning. But motivated as it was by fear, I sense it got a bit out of hand, and she was perhaps too self-focused. It sees to me that a Christian theological approach to salvation can be motivated by self-focus and fear. Self-focus and fear can deform salvation into something Jesus never intended. How so?

We’re going to talk about it further this coming week on the blog as we study the piece in the Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-20, the Helmet of Salvation. What is the Helmet of Salvation? I think you’ll find it is a piece of the Armor of God that helps us turn away from fear and self-focus. But how?

Join us on the blog next week as we talk about it.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash