![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9-LyhsekLhA/TgugCnSme-I/AAAAAAAADNw/nJSqZV0if84/s320/Roman_scale_armour_detail.jpg)
“When we have our ‘armour’ up and are conscious of our ‘injuries’, then we cannot ‘shine our light’ easily or readily. So, lower your armour, heal your wounds and shine your light!” ~David Deane-Spread.
There are two essential gates to proceed through before we can grasp our pragmatic mental, emotional and spiritual freedom.
Opening the first gate goes against the grain of our human nature—to be vulnerable enough to drop the armour of our self-protectiveness. In a condition exposed to the elements of a critical world, there’s little wonder we’ve developed the armour in the first place.
But, before we go further we must seek to understand what it is that we’re protecting.
The Truth of the Wounded Self
Each of us, if we strip away the protective armour, is deeply wounded. The gate to the true self is closed fast and armoured. No matter how wonderful our parents were, they—in their humanity—failed. This was added to our birth-brokenness. Likewise, despite the quality of our education and care, we weren’t protected from the hurts that occasionally slashed the sinews of our hearts.
Each of us has unresolved hurts and disappointments due to our pasts.
Over the true self that’s whole, complete and entirely confident of faith, is this wounded self that turns fun into harsh seriousness and ease into hardship. This effect is the armoured self protecting us.
But the armoured self is not always an ally. It often acts against our best good, because fear fuels it.
Addressing Our Woundedness
To become more of the person we are deep inside—the one alive and free of spirit—we must deal with our woundedness, or at least be honest about it.
This cannot be done with our armour up, so we must drop it. But it’s got to be said, that without the right preparations, that can prove even more damaging as our wounded self is exposed to pummelling attacks.
Given this, we’re blessed to buoy and build up stocks of courage-on-loan to assist.
A Vision of Our True Selves
Imagining an eagle flying high in the sky, totally enabled in its flight, without the faintest fetter and certainly no fright, we see ourselves—yes, each one—at our best.
We know the glimpses of ourselves that we get from time to time; confidence is high and the world laps at our bowls. We’re the person of the moment in our little demographic; ‘world-beaters’ are we.
Yet, so often we’re not like this. Too many times we’re far less.
Shining Our Lights
Each of us is a spiritual being with the potential of light within that could captivate the entire world. But our armoured self and wounded self gates must first be opened.
It’s not until we prepare the wounded self in courage, and then drop the armour to truth, that we reveal our truer selves to the development opportunities that prevail every day.
We have a need of healing, and of a Healer—apportioned to the need we have of the Spirit of God. This facilitates the lowering of our armour, of being real, and bravely acknowledging our woundedness, and that invites irrefutable light to beacon through, flaring away the darkness of fear.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
Acknowledgement: to David Deane-Spread’s, Master the Power of Your Attitudes (eBook), p. 7. Website: http://www.daviddeane-spread.com/.