“6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. 3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. 5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!” 7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. 12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” (Rev 6:1-17 ESV)

The hectic nature of life, it means kaput to planned prayer times, to assertions of calm and control, to methodical Investigations. That is, as a forward asset, the soldier’s first battle is just with keeping the eyes on the prize: keeping the Elevated Status front and center even as all around there is yawn and business as usual. This Forward Asset, he or she may very well be bombarded with “spirit”, with “spiritual insight”, with “ideas to match to situations”. And that is no paranoid ideation or talking to oneself: it is the fact, the soldier in gear, on the frontline, in a burgeoning all-out war over Jesus, is negotiating Radically invisible yet Purposeful advances. Lives saved! Principles married to the Cause! An early Departure, even, as more traditional means start to dot the horizon. 

And said departure, the spy who came in from the cold… the asset who had a vacation… the Friend who treasured a few hours in communication: all this is rather moot to the warrior with the frame of war on his or her mind. We shall labor on, soldier on, design and deploy Futuristic, Human-Originating, Answers to God on High: what He deigns to be the Way of Man, what He asserts to be Man’s proper functioning, proper society, proper life post-war.

Because He will store up in the heart of hearts, “in pectoram”, the many ways Man has fought for his and her own progeny, future, survival. The formations above in the sky, the march down here on the ground, the silent patrol out there under the foaming sea… our Bellicose nature is tempered in the service of Something that survives. Not measured even at the earlier stages n terms of human life alone, but that Civilization, Moral Code, Principle, National Pride, will survive. On a desert island. In a societal backwater, and do see! Man in his or her backwater laments and is ambitious for more, but Christ had a plan! That the ones out of harm’s way, out of the big picture, away from the shelling and hell fire, these may contain the Key to tomorrow’s Next Steps. 

We, too, as lamenting our station in life, do get reminded Christ has a Plan for each and every one of us, tempered only by how much we’ve already grabbed or indulged for ourselves. These indulgences… He forgives, but for our own sake, how Blessed to know we had some Holy Innocence left in us after all! How Blessed to know we had some Self-Giving in that solemn hour past, as Today He Restores and Upbuilds, insanely courageous, insanely repairing, insanely gifted and reminded and rewarded. Untold gifts, undeserved gifts, God on March to display His point of pride: us, His people.

 And the soldier’s retirement, it is met at times with the friend on the street corner who mutters holy things, who claims outlandish things, who is post-victory perhaps, only it having been a victory unappreciated or at Cost most high: personal Cost, some ironical Fact of not appreciating, like Jonah who complained, that God was in the war we just concluded. In the forward asset’s personal contribution. Muttering, obsessed, distressed. Yet that will never be the sum and substance for us, for us personally: we were engaged in salvific Works, and as others swooped in and covered for us, took up the badge, flew high the Cross, the Flag, the people were Treated to salvific Courage from their militant members. From the assembled Armies. From the horsemen, who precluded an Impossible Armageddon avoided. For our task is only this: holy simplicity, to entrust the future of humanity to a benevolent God on High. And as for us, we do all we can, because the work contains its own reward. The work, it is its own pleasure factory. The work, is its own Recruited, Conscripted, Joyously—go tell the family! Tell the neighbors and friends—signing up on the dotted line, as this being my umbrella organization, this being where I live and breathe and have my being. And the chaplaincy of my umbrella: that is in my daily Scripture reading, in the family time around the hearth, in the corporate meetings and promotions or demotions. Where Principle stands tall and where unnerved, we think way Advanced Ideas about how, despite the invisibility at times, we are waging Tomorrow’s War.