All my other blog posts have concerned themselves with some aspect of traveling, or being in another country, or something...but this one is a little different.

I started going to a Presbyterian church here in Gwangju. I basically gave up on finding the Roman Catholic one, but I found a Presby one so I figured....same book, same God, can't do any harm. I actually kind of like it, too...which is weird because I'm a big Roman Catholic-loving nerd. It's less structured, which is weird...but there's singing at the beginning and I like that. And the sermon is usually ok. If there was a movie made about this church, it would be one of those Royal Tennenbaum-weird-character-driven movies; everyone is a little bit off and I like that, I'm a little bit off.

Anyway, during the sermon this past week, I was reading through the Bible because they get a little long and I'm working on the attention span, but I definitely don't have it down yet. I was reading the end of the book of Ephesians wherein Paul says (in the King James version):

"¹⁴Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

¹⁵And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

¹⁶Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit..."

I was reading this, and everything seemed hunkydorey...breastplate of righteousness, that makes sense, feet shod for the gospel of peace also makes sense, shield of faith and sword of the Spirit check check...then why are we putting on a helmet of Salvation, but we're girting our loins with truth? I went back and reread the verse thinking, maybe we get two helmets? One for truth and one for Salvation? To my confusion, truth is protecting our loins.

I thought, at first, that truth should protect our minds - isn't that where we figure truth out? But then I realized Paul hit the nail on the head, or the loins rather. When we know something is true, we know it in our gut. We've renamed it intuition, but really it's truth, the truth that matters. There is truth in our heads, scientific research, things we see with our eyes, but there is truth in our gut too. That truth we can't see or touch, but it's truth we feel - and it's a far more important truth. We can't see that someone loves us, we can't test them, but we can feel it, it is truth.

That is the kind of intangible truth we feel in our loins, and we must girt it - encircle it, surround it - because it is the easiest to lose, or rather bury, or hide. But we must encircle it, to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. We cannot reason the loin truth with our mind truth, we will end up doubting one or the other, or both; which is the end goal when evil acts.

When Paul says girt your loins with truth - he means protect the truth residing there, but he also means protect your loins with truth. Once one lie weaves its way down into your belly, it opens up a channel for all other lies to live and fester there. Even though that is where our most basic and important truths live, they are the most fragile truths as well.

I think a universal girting of loins would help. It helps us keep our loin-truth at the front of our minds where it should be, rather pushed down to the back and degraded to intuition. Though seeking loin-truth, and trusting it does not bring happiness (no truth seeking brings happiness), it can bring peace of mind, and we all need a little more peace of mind...or of loins.