“15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” (Gal 2:15-21 ESV)

Having exuberance of motive, the conspiracy of the Cross meets head-on with middling concerns, random flares, Projects for the day. Our Projects are shrouded in secret-think, yet are plain for all to see. On some level, we have “arrived” insofar as the hearty laugh meets the heartfelt tears, and the Urgency speaks across oceans and continents to ambassadorial Request, request as to the necessity of a Cross-centered Unit to whom and by which patient Evangelical forward cause is advanced.

Because what we are is plain for all to see, derelict and lost souls whom God deigned to Love, whom He anointed and taught, whom He lifted from all harping or impatient concern: of a sudden, we fear not to die, nor do we fear what our legacy will be; we harbor Hope for the shipshape Presentation at the altar of Combat. Readiness, combat preparedness, it was birthed in a solemn Arena, barroom, college cafeteria, the Zany readiness and willingness apolitically to Serve. We serve a God who had no better counsel than to “die”, to “die” that our weaker sins might be absolved. To “die” that our enervated souls might return to life. To “die” that our whisp-of-wind minds, mettle intricate and web-like, might come down Grace and nothing artificial about its intelligence quota. Somehow our “A.I.” as modeled in the neural networks of living and breathing Human Mind, has a few God-fearing tricks up its sleeve, a little Grace, some Compunction or Concern for the humanity’s Cause.

Conspiratorial thinking, then, does not separate us from the atheist comrade in arms, or the doubter, or the “not yet, ma!” believer. All are called to be wise, and to pray fervently for the Advancement of the Gospel, of the Cause, of Recruitment even as new acolytes engage at once in a solemn “ping, ping” to Identify enemy flotillas. In a church, yes, the ping, ping of search for immodest doctrine, for brash compromise, for ill theology. We are fervent in prayer, that the Gospel be advanced, the gospel vis-a-vis its Godhead ability to change lives. The gospel as in the two halves of life, a time pitiable and only searching for a hug and some reassurance, and a latter half Respectable, and therefore Responsible for any ill-begotten deeds.

We are Responsible even prior to coming “of age”, because God loved us but expected no Perfection from us. He invested mightily in us, that we might grow into the glove and into the socket of “leadership”, as a notion distinct perhaps from “management”, the former a servant example set, and the latter the direct orders coming down from top brass. “Here are a few things to think through”: you work in your medium and I in mine. God has this divine Patience with mankind, which beguiles and convicts us! See, would we have waited the decade or two for this change of heart, this forgiveness of past slights, this Coming Together Reality? Pray we have the courage to shelter our would-be acolytes, even as War tries to dictate the terms of engagement in most uncertain footing, false rock, minus the Bedrock of Christ. But we have Him who endured from sinners such disdain as to shake His head in disbelief but knowing disbelief: God for us, patient and abused for us, lightly holding onto life for us, willing to give it all away for us.