Enter the Wriston

A good friend of mine and I used to visit, according to a weekly ritual, a sushi restaurant called “Take Sushi”. For those who have never tried sushi, it is actually quite delicious (particularly its fried incarnation known as ‘tempura’). I have, over the years, come to appreciate many manifestations of Asian cuisine. Certain Asian restaurants cause me to feel that I am walking into a martial arts action movie. At any time, a shuriken or a dagger with a threatening note attached could whizz past my nose embedding itself into an adjacent wall. After a dramatic dodge or reading of the attached note I spring in to action. I flip a table on its side to deflect the attacks of several ninja warriors. I, and my ally fend off the assassins and are treated to all of the finest foods that Asia has to offer. When my good friend and I used to enter "Take Sushi," I felt as though we were the twin dragons, foretold by legend. We were two American detectives trained, since youth, by the monks that raised us in a temple high atop a mountain. This illusion ends as I rip into a packet of Sweet 'N Low. Certainly no master of the martial arts would ingest an artificial sweetener known to cause cancer in lab rats. I probably wouldn't get "tummy aches" from eating too much either. Well, one can always dream.
All of us might not have the power to defeat evil martial arts masters, but we definitely have power in Christ. In Philippians 4, Paul ends us letter to the church in Philippi by speaking of how he is content and empowered in all situations because of God. In 1 John 3:6-9, we learn that living in Christ removes us from sinning. The devil, like a ninja assassin, continually makes well-planned strikes against us. We need to be prepared. Like one trained by monks, we need to put on the full armor of God that is mentioned in Ephesians 6. Life is not without joy and peace. The only way to a fulfilling life, however, is through God. Accepting his forgiveness, we need to live as warriors of the faith.