“14 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel.” (Acts 14:1-7 ESV)

Try explaining to a child: the best counsel around waging war, is that it doesn’t take a militant turn to bring on the event horizon, the event of war waged, the start of conflict. No, we attribute causal power at times to peaceful, optimistic, adventurous and principled Good Deeds. That is, we are inviting all parties along for the ride, saddened only when unbeknownst to us something leaves this one party or that one party, crooning after Conflict. A broken pipeline. A fractured criminality. A discarded hegemony, mark of power, emblem of potency.

To wage the New War, the Tomorrow War, is to envision all agents of the governing powers, wise as serpents, innocent as doves. They will hate you for your goodness. Indeed, to win some wars, we must be a little less “good”, not to be blindsided by those much less “good”. To reframe, to rephrase: having enemies, alternate parties, to the Gospel party, this helps us stay grounded and Sane. God doesn’t leave any stragglers. God has a patience beyond our own levels of exasperation, beyond our own special moments, beyond our own party spirit. God wants to use first one then another, as agents of the Cross, as those willing to put up Emblem Divine of Peaceful Engagement, of nothing but Evangelizing in the Good Sense, of innocence of any greater evils.

Therefore the militant’s mind is coaxed and encouraged around wearing heart on sleeve, around Investing in the Societal Cause called Christian, called Discovered, Relatable, Experiential. That Man in his guise, his guile, his mental warp and woof, is spoken to from above, in Good Ways Forward, in Prophetic Humblings and Adventurings, in loving on those who hate us and use us despitefully.

To know the culture of a foreign adversary or nation, this may be a start: that whatever innate value a cultural artifact or piece de resistance may have, what it means and what it demonstrates, is a whole World of potency, a “Power House” of benign or rather value-added, honestly belligerent, sense of Goodness. Yes, to some hearty souls, the emblem of Potency is no corrupt fantasy but rather tooth and saber unto getting ahead of the sin game. God makes first this one and then that one, to Dream Big around a Tomorrow Party, a Wedding Feast, a celebration for which we are Hated. For which we are innocent as doves. For which we are guile and cunning as the serpent.

It means the world to our interlocutors, that we meet the Game head-on but in firm Resolve, that howsoever we may put aside more distant dreams, that Today’s War is still one of a Talking Point or a Principle, a place where we refuse to “go cynical”, refuse to entertain sad aggressions, refuse to drop the ball of our own soldiering modesty, meekness, and duty.