2023-05-13 A Meditation on Quiet Victories

“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Co 1:9–11 ESV)

The quiet victories, vigilance, the ball keeps rolling and we, tandem to our Head and God, dwell into the expedition. We dwell into the operation, pressure only of a healthsome variety: the pressure that excites, that worships, that gives thanks, that keeps our motors running. For the quiet victories were tantamount, previously cause for much worry, until we awoke and the skies seemed clear. Until we awoke and it seemed almost to mock our vigilance, were we not wise to the devil’s game. The devil, intelligent and crafty, backs off at times, only to make mockery of our fare and our fervent mission and ministry.

Or this day salvation has come to this house. Quiet victories wars unfought, quiet victories back-and-forth escalations but now with new terms and new thought-out constructions. We think out what we would like from a negotiation and diplomacy, challenging a crafty devil to hear our words of acknowledgment (yes, God is real), of determination (yes, we go “All in” on this one), of no turning back (yes, our future is in His hands).

For life taunts the deep thinker, taunts the pragmatist who only in exasperated trademark style wants a little sense and sensibility around here. The thinker and pragmatist is offended, it seems, by all insanities of life, yet today our lives are in God’s hands and we are adopted into the Cause. We are not to fuss about self-contained expectations and plans, rather, we are to laugh and know God is preparing a victory greater than anything our mocked and troubled souls dare to believe in.

Only in the trenches. Only when we’ve met our match, spirit-wise, and reluctantly or expectantly hunker down. Here, it may be, God already had us on His rolls. Here, it may be, God already was preparing us to face the Unknown… together. Here, it may be, a celebratory Spirit was at work simply in that healing outlay called Spirit and Worship. Today, take some time for yourself, rather for God’s-self. Today, see the devil hide out precisely because of our vigilance: these are quiet victories, and occasion to remember just who and why a troubled world, a heart-broken community, a neglected school of thought, is in need of prayer. Today, we pray, and tomorrow live into what we dared to believe, measured out in accordance to our faith. So we thank God in trials and hardships, that we are made better for the morrow.