Today's Word: Workplace War with the Armor of Yahvah

Several years ago, the company I worked for was undergoing massive changes. Until then, I’d been on a wonderful team of encouraging leaders and friends. We were building our side of the business and seeing great success. We were thrilled to be a part of it. Then, before we knew what hit us, people were being downsized and company holdings were sold.

In an attempt to take market share, our company purchased another business that targeted a niche market. Within a few months, one of their managers pressed his way into a corporate VP position. We were stunned to find that this person we barely knew would have control over the business we’d built for years.

Not your typical executive, his spiky hair laid in rows set by the overuse of gel. He wore shiny silk shirts that were always left open to expose his gold chains. His favorite expletive broke a commandment—a phrase he favored enough to use in nearly every sentence he spoke. He regularly told me that we needed to have a “Come to Yeshua” meeting, meaning I needed to stop opposing him and take on his viewpoint.
I tried to buffer the people working under me as he did everything he could to sway the office culture to his repugnant ways. Still, I often found him telling an office full of women of his nightly conquests or repeatedly flirting with the younger associates. He even tried to persuade me to set him up with several of them.

When he casually asked me what I thought of him during a group lunch, I pointedly told him I didn’t like him. A few weeks later, people were moved around, job titles were changed, and he became my direct boss. I was in the crosshairs.

I panicked about how I would handle such a disaster. Being a new Christian I knew I would have to rely heavily on Yahvah to get through this. So, I turned to a strong Christian friend for advice.

“Put on the armor of Yahvah,” she said.

“The…what?!” I asked thinking she was being incredibly pat in the face of my circumstances.

“The armor of Yahvah,” she said. “You’ll be fine. Look it up.”

I felt defeated. But with nothing else to turn to, I followed her advice.

I had never heard about this armor. Surely it was something incredible. Maybe Yahvah would come crashing down on this nightmare boss and conquer him for me. But like most things with Yahvah, a lot of it depended on me.

In Ephesians I found:“Put on the full armor of Yahvah so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Yahvah.”

Truth. Righteousness. Readiness. Faith. The Word. Could that really be all I needed?

My devastation turned to intrigue.

He could not pierce me as long as I had those things with me each day. This barrier between us. And so I dressed myself in them mentally each day.

I clung to the beauty of truth. I made sure to keep my mind ready for whatever he might throw at me. I held tightly to my faith and prayed regularly throughout each work day. And I studied the Word, breathing it in and out when I was around him.

No matter what my boss could do to my career, he couldn’t change me. There was nothing that could be take from me that couldn’t be replaced. Even if I lost my job, or had to struggle financially he couldn’t harm who I was: a follower of Yeshua. I was protected by Yahvah. I just had to suit up.

I eventually did lose my job (while on maternity leave) to a woman friend who came along with him in the buy-out. But what I lost in the business world was minute compared to the gain in my faith. As a new Christian, I learned a great lesson about relying on the things of Yahvah.