“13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 6:10 ESV)

Mankind naturally does the impossible, something Spirit-led, some enigma, a coming-together of radically disparate parts. We naturally form affinities with people quite different from us. We long, in our inmost being, to Understand and be Understood. And this experience is not limited to the would-be “bestie” or “Cassanova”: all wartime played out, brushes up against the injunction not to get married on the eve of the armies setting out. Or (to be faithful to Scripture) to choose to be faint-of-heart and well, then, up and go spend a year on sabbatical from army life, with your new spouse (Deut 20:7).

The impossible, however, occurs in the trenches and in a radical comment on Relativity or Quantum physics, a passing glance by now, in our adulthood, standing in the stead of years of back-and-forth, of repartee, of life in community. We adjudicate falling for someone with cold networks recruited, formed alliances, numbers of lives Converted, Saved. Or do we? Rather, we simply recall that romantic antics naturally Inform us, Teach us, Liberate us, to love this enemy or that: because we, after all, made it work.

That is, taking some Alternate Mindset, what Mankind fights over, is, after a Moment of Decision, suddenly shadenfreude and copacetic. A Moment of Decision occurs via some unplanned Enterprise or forlorn morning after, in one era, and a glance across the bar in another: the enemy’s “Draw” or “Witchcraft”, “Warlockcraft”, no denial that we Love these “others”. We have formed an opinion of them, and in all Professionalism it is an opinion of Camaraderie, In it together, mutual respect. Dare we say, a “Love” misunderstood or replaced with insinuations, plausibility, of enmity or distrust. Of course we are open minded or suspicious, but also we have professional courtesy. We bear one another’s burdens: all are sinners.

The chaste man or woman, then, to some accounts can soar further, being in War Mode by their celibacy. Or vice-versa. Being capable of friendship and, perhaps being Eager and Available… is that a mystery? It surely is a mystery, for the well-socialized Being is just as opportunistic, rather, evolved into loving relationships formed with the Other. With the borderline. With the landscape of Peoples, Area beheld and upheld. On the fringes. For the sake of the Family back home, the brothers and sisters on the Front Line. The duty to church and to country.

Moments of decision mark some as too “out of the box”, not cool and rational, and this stigma is due to having a Dream, learning to Make our Mark with a simple pat on the shoulder or a word of encouragement. What would the people say, if I said this or that? No outlandish connect-the-dots, rabbit trail of thought, but Heart On Sleeve reasonable Missional thinking. On Mission. On Patrol. Loving on the wild-eyed, hopeful peoples liberated, but also in chaste fashion not “Getting married” (itself a difficult thing to do) whilst on the Eve… of War? Of heightened alert? Of “Mountains fall on us”? Of Christ… of His let us recall, Wedding Banquet.