“21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”” (Luke 10:21-24 ESV)

Ideas and conjectures, boots on the ground meet the ethereal in the precise observance patient are His ways, bold His claims, if all seemed lost, well so much that was mourned is still largely intact. Largely reward is given to patient employ, adherence, duty. Largely phase two is inaugurated around some earned time off or time of prayer: ecstasy to the warrior of prayer, is not fomented in a vacuum, rather, it is a meditation on some large duty discharged and some patient employ regarded. Reconciled, mind and where the heart would in prayerful bliss go. Reconciled because that same “what if” is bandied about yet again, only with new insights, and unfolding observations: after all, a comedy of manners is called for; after all, the exchange and hand-off is a bit more precious, a bit more studied, a bit more of a rare find, than first thought.

The hand-off is forged in a world gone to the dogs, rather, a world seeking and thirsting for some unction and moisture unto the pain of original sin. The fact friendships can fail to “be there” during the nervous breakdown, during the fright-factor, during the abandonment for brighter or richer digs. We all of us, we fail as friends only likewise we have our moments benign and giving. We are good friends on occasion, and on others we gape and gawk a bit over the struggles of another.

Only this, that Christian perfection is a remove, a prayer-closet, a labyrinth of Home Base beloved and benign. We love, to be able and licensed to take the day in prayer; one story after another ample and enthusiastic material to focus on, to think through, to allocate to the thirsting heart as a salve and ointment to the desiccated pain. Reward: what was it I was just thinking about? It was something trusting and loving! It was something I cared about deeply! It was, after all, a “what if” bandied about right on through a round two.

Boots on the ground, because to the new recruit the fields are white for the harvest: much is endeared under the heading “immediate”, “now”, “urgent!”. Those long in the game, they forget at times what the most pressing and key points are; they are a bit too timid or cage-fighters a bit too accustomed to the cage. All of us do, and to the new recruit: the obvious questions around a Totally Depraved world (to use Calvinism’s TULIP motif), are as to pointing to the Obvious reasons that today we mourn, the obvious barren womb of life, the obvious desiccated mind most sublime, the obvious hearth long abandoned.

The incision once made, the bloodletting now underway, the promise of a New Day wherein so much long ago conceded to Satan, so much such that it is even now Forgotten… there will be a farm for every family, a bride for every husband and vice-versa, a faith for every philosopher of life. There will be an amazing kumbaya moment, when instead of hearing weariness and empty banter, we will hear alacrity and benevolent Room to grow in: the student efficacious and sublime, motivated and determined, to make the right career move taken in unspoken faith. Yet, to that horror of life just chugging along minus Inspiration: we nonetheless count the days: a prayer by now a year old, might this very hour be unfolding in real-life discussion or a phone call for a dialog.