May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

I wore the cuff pictured above every day from August of 2019 to June of 2022. Over the summer of 2022, I noticed that it had developed a weak point from the need to squeeze it tighter as I lost weight. Then, one morning in June, as I gingerly attempted to fit it on, it snapped. I was heartbroken. Romans 15:13 is such an integral part of my life’s mission – to share the hope of Jesus Christ with other people – and even though it’s just a hunk of metal, I couldn’t believe that God would allow a physical reminder of who I am and what I’m all about to break.

Something about the breaking of the word “Warrior” felt very personal.

I cried a little over the loss of it while I put on the smaller braided cuff that I wear with it. It sounds stupid, to cry over a piece of metal, but it felt like a bigger loss for some reason and all day long I missed the weight of it on my arm. Its brokenness bothered me long into the night making it difficult to sleep.

The next morning as I grabbed it off the bathroom counter to lock it into place on my wrist like I’d done nearly a thousand times before, only half of it came into my hand and I was hit again with an overwhelming need to know why it had broken – why at this time when so much seems to be moving so well in the new direction that God is leading me? Why right through the “W” in “Warrior”?

It was in that moment that a gentle whisper recalled to my heart my Bible study reading from the evening before along with a question that the author raised:

“Will you step out as Abraham did – with a new name and a new heart, one that desires to follow God every step of the way, leaving the familiar, the comfortable in search of God’s best for you?”

Beloved, God’s message to me hit like a ton of bricks. I was physically shaken and am shaken again as I share this with you.

You see, “Warrior of Hope” was inspired by a session I’d gone to at a national conference titled “Hope for the Wounded”. It was a great session on supporting students who’d had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). All throughout the session, I kept thinking – this is all great and this presenter’s heart is in the right place, but without the message of Christ’s saving grace and endless love, his efforts to help kids will always fall a little short. I came home later in the week and ordered the cuff with “Warrior of Hope” on the outside – something he had inspired me to be in my daily role – and Romans 15:13 stamped on the inside because I knew that any hope I tried to give others on my own wouldn’t cut it.

Why was Romans 15:13 stamped on the inside and not on the outside?

I don’t remember consciously making the decision, but I think somehow I knew – as much as I silently judged that gentleman as being less effective without Christ in his messaging – that in my daily role I carried Christ on the inside but felt I had to wear Him covertly – an unspoken influence on my choice of words and actions tucked away against my skin – a Warrior on the outside, her Source of hope hidden away on the inside.

Oh sweet friends, the breaking of that cuff may seem like a faulty jewelry design or a simple consequence of squeezing it too much to some, but I know – fully KNOW – that God was speaking loudly and clearly to me through it, that it happened on that particular morning and not any other morning because that was the time I needed to hear His message:

It’s time to step out and fully embrace the Warrior He says I am on the inside and wear Him openly through my words and actions on the OUTSIDE. Just like Abraham, God has given me a new name and He is constantly shaping my heart into a new one that is more like His.

Days after the breaking of that cuff, I submitted a letter of resignation to my workplace of six years and shared with my colleagues and supervisors that God needed me to leave the comfortable weight of carrying Him on the inside only behind. He needed me to become not just comfortable but confident wearing Him on the outside at all times.

And so, here I am, doing a little educational consulting when God sends work my way and spending the bulk of my time here sharing God’s Word with you and ministering locally as part of my church body.

I’ll admit, for a couple of months last fall, I contemplated asking some of my handier Brothers to weld the cuff back together for me, to continue wearing it – marred though I was sure it would be.

BUT God – man I love those words! – I know God doesn’t want me to carry around the familiar weight of the old any longer; He hasn’t called me to a plan marred by the limitations of my past.

Sisters and Brothers, I pose to you these questions:

What familiar weight is God asking you to leave behind?

What comfortable name does He want you to shed for the better name that He has prepared for you?

Ask Him today. Truly He is faithful to answer! Embrace Him today! He will draw you near and reveal who you are in Him!