Between the Panels

Imagine you get called to war and you have to react immediately.  You have all the gear: Kevlar vest, combat weapon, belt with tools/supplies, helmet, and you are wearing flip-flops.... I hate to brake it to you, but you are not ready at that point to face anything that comes your way.  With 30 seconds of intense fighting, those flip-flops would be flip-flopping off and you are stuck with just your barefeet. Not looking too good eh? Looking at the Romans foot wear, not only was it adjustable for each soldiers comfort, but they even had small metal spikes under them for gripping into the terrain! These warriors need to be prepared for any kind of climate that they would face and they knew our Old Navy flip-flops were not going to cut it. When it comes to footwear, you gotta look at the heroes that are always on their feet and go everywhere with them. This is why the Scarlet Speedster ( The Flash ) is the best rep for the kind of footwear you would want.  Think about it; th...

I think we can all understand why it is so important in battle to have a breastplate on. Simply put, it stops things from severely damaging your vital organs (heart, lungs, intestines, etc.). To go into battle without one is asking for that random arrow or lucky slash to take you out in one fell swoop.  Oooooo that's gonna hurt! In the Roman army, these breastplates often had smaller plates and several ties to make it a perfect fit for the soldier to have free range of motion while having maximum protection. Superman is the most iconic piece for this armour.  What makes Sup's breastplate different than others is that it is from another planet (krypton) and was able to endure a lot of wear and tare in battle.  You would think this is the key to Superman's durability, but that's not the case; Superman is just naturally tough.  It's the iconic "S" that makes this stand out. One of my favourite lines in Superman: Man of Steel was when Lois Lane is asking wh...

The Armour of God (found in Ephesians 6:14-17 ) is a well known passage of scripture that most Christians could quote off the top of their heads.  However, it can lose meaning if we don't dive deeper on why Paul likely gave certain attributes of the armour pieces (truth, peace, faith, etc.) that he did. So to help in drawing that deeper connection and importance of these principles to their armour pieces, we are going to take the armour and make it NERDY STYLE!!!! Buckle up! First is the belt of truth ( Ephesians 6:14 ).  This might seem like a boring piece, but it is really the foundation of it all.  Without the belt there would be no way for a soldier (in the Roman army) to be able to carry their sword.  The belt would often hold the breast plate intact as well.  A belt was not just something to hold up your pants, but would give you peace of mind as you were moving forward in the fight: that you were equipped and ready. Batman's belt is the best example of t...

Don’t you wish you could have everything in life organized in priority and immediacy? Admittedly, this is one thing that I think video games/role-playing games does well.  Typically, when you are pausing after finishing a big quest or are in the break of the story; you are brought to your quest menu .  The quest menu is so helpful not just seeing what you have accomplished (getting that pat on the back), but seeing whether it is a main plot task or a side quest.  Along with that, there are sometimes promptings of events that you can jump into immediately to find impressive loot or a level up for your character. However, if you didn’t have this menu to navigate through or prioritize what quests you are taking, you might just aimlessly go around not making as much progress. It helps to be organized and to be able to go into the game with a plan and an intentional goal for your character to grow in their journey. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Jesus actually has something that ...

Challenges always adds an engaging dynamic to a game.  I am not talking about "Boss fights" that you have to win in order to progress onward.  No, a challenge is something that typically tests to see your level of experience, skill, or effectiveness in the game. Often when you get to these challenges in a game, a player can return to redo them if they were not as successful as they wanted to be to get better rewards or better stats among other players (if in an open world online).  Again, I refer to my experience with Batman: Arkham Knight where often challenges were to see how high of a score you could get in fighting against a large crowd effectively, all the while trying to beat some of my friends scores who had done the same challenge. This was a major distraction since once you found out other people's scores compared to your own, it was easy to get focused on beating other's scores and loose track of where you should be in the story. The Bible is not afraid to...

I have a confession to make.  I am the kind of gamer that focuses on getting loot and advancing my equipment for the road ahead.  Lots of games have a looting component to them (these are often called " looter shooters "), where you need to keep on advancing your equipment along the progress of the game/round.  Specifically, Fortnite is one of these looter games.  My bad habit is that I want to make sure I have enough equipment and ammunition for my character for when we have to fight of another group in the game to survive the round.  This however, drags my team back and it can put them at a disadvantage with a distracted team member in a confrontation. It is good to upgrade your equipment and to keep looking for the better stuff that will give you an edge in the battle.  The balancing act is determining when is the best time for looting and when is it time to keep going on .  It really comes down to what stage of the game you are at and what amount ...

Gamers, particularly ones who like to play RPG s ( Role Playing Games ), know that there is a legitimate struggle between focusing on the main story and wanting to do side quests/missions . Everyone gets the game for the main story and works toward its conclusion. Though, side quests are sometimes more fun than focusing on the main story, especially when you are struggling at a certain points. Take me for example. I love the Batman Arkham series games and have played through 3/4 of them in their completion.  However, in Batman: Arkham Knight , I have been getting distracted with side quests that I have left the main story for now years (this is in part because of not gaming by myself lately).  Part of it was the struggle of fighting major bosses, but also there have been some fun side quests with other characters that I love to interact with.  This is all to say that completing side quests and focusing on them for a while is not bad; they are part of getting things done ...