Day 5: Abigail and Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle)
“So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart),”
Ephesians 6:14 AMP
Scriptures: Ephesians 6:14; 1 Samuel 25:14-18, 32-33, 36-38; 1 Samuel 30:5-8; Psalms 111: 7-8
As a warrior, and as a human, one thing we cannot escape is the importance of timing. When learning a weapon or how to fight, and especially in working with others, a sense of rhythm and time management is needed. Now that we know what we need to do as warriors of God (stand), where we need to look (to God), what we need to wear (our God-given armor), and who we are with (God), we have to get into the rhythm. But what does truth and righteousness have to do with rhythm?
Well let us look at two amazing warriors: David’s wife Abigail, and Barbara Gordon the first Batgirl.
Abigail is an honest woman who does not shy away from the responsibilities left by the mistakes of her foolish first husband, Nabal. Nabal insulted and incited the wrath of David. So, after being asked to by a servant, she does something about the incident and seeks David’s forgiveness. She did not hide the fact that Nabal was foolish nor did she disrespect him because of his foolishness. Abigail did what she had to do not just for herself, but for the others attached to her, which included Nabal, then David. Being attached to David was no fun either because she got captured by David’s enemies and had to wait for a rescue. But she, and those with her, were rescued in the end.
Abigail shows us that truth is connection. Whether we like it or not, the belt of truth is not for fashion and is not only a belt for us. It is meant to guard us, help hold us up, help us hold each other up. We are not warriors alone. God even said that a three fold cord is not easily broken.
A steady beat of one is easy, but to create a strong rhythm, more than one beat is needed. Though to be in rhythm is to be willing to be in time. A true beat is in time. An out-of-time beat, even if it is the right note, is still an off-beat. All that Abigail did, she did it in the time she needed to, even telling Nabal his mistake. There was no rush or dragging by the belt that needed to be done. She hit all her notes, even when they were low. Then in the end, in her song, in her story, she stands as wife to a king.
Barbara Gordon was not only a policeman’s daughter, she chose to carry the sigil of Batman as a breastplate to her costume. She chose to signal whose side she was on and what she was fighting for every time she went out in that suit. Even when tragedy struck Barbara, at her own home where she believed she was safe, and she couldn’t physically wear the breastplate anymore, she found a new way to fight. She found a new way to carry Batman’s sigil and then make it her own. She still held up a breastplate to protect her heart and the hearts of so many others as they stood for the good of Gotham.
Barbara shows us that righteousness is the tempo of this warrior song. Tempo is the speed of the song just like our heart is the life force of our body. It beats blood into us physically, but what is it beating into us spiritually? What, who is driving each beat of your spiritual heart?
Barbara fights and wears Batman’s sigil as Batgirl because she believes in protecting the innocent of Gotham at all costs. That motivates her actions every time she puts on that suit. But that belief beats into her so strongly that even when her body changes, her heart does not. If the belief of a heroine’s justice and righteousness is not limited by her body, how much more unlimited is God’s righteousness? Do we let God’s righteousness beat through us in the limitlessly God can or do we try to control the tempo of the righteousness to be what we expect (or want) it to be?
God can tell you what is true and right all on His own. What He is asking us to do here is not a list. God is calling us to stand and be in time with Him. In His truth and righteousness for they have no time limit but His. As His warriors, can we follow Him?
Something Good 