“3 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:1-13 ESV)

The Christian’s patience is on record as abundant, because he or she lives out the Cross when to do so, even in the presence of a church, is scandalous, cavalier, insane. Funny, that after some time Experiencing a church, we become glib and proficient in “looking good”; but the Call is still to go no guts no glory after the Cross.

The Cross is to upset the apple cart of hate and contention: to love those different from us, with a love that originates perhaps in one reluctant Good Deed done in their direction. We become invested in our good deed, and start to Care as to whether and how this one responds. More, our smug or calculated demeanor, we think of at once when that age-old sermon is heard: “Whatever your problem’s size, God is bigger”; “Trust and fall into His arms, He will restore you”. These sermons are not the full counsel of the Gospel: to experience Betrayal, Persecution, Immediate rebuke, Incautious balancing act of mutual aggression, one against the other and vice-versa: this is the Gospel.

Therefore be Bold, O New Believer: your deeds are indeed crazed and half-cocked, but you have a Witness to discharge, a Duty to live into, a Vibe to convey, a Story to retell. It is a story originating on a cold Hill called Calvary. It prefigures all sorts of War, because it draws a line in the sand, and makes strange bunkmates of the disparate, wandering, sinful estate of Man.

Be bold, to Engage a mindset so wondrously liberated from Pride and from Hoarding and from Earthly concerns: therefore our boast is in this, that we went with hearty glee, hearty camaraderie, hearty Mission, into the battlefield. With young and old alike. With those just learning the ropes (of missional, Cross-centered life) and the ones who nary a thought can frighten about dying for the cause. We are to “die” in one way or another, and somehow when we embrace that Fact, somehow the bombs often will just miss us and the blink of explosion will not be our last. We will be, therefore, Translated into the Eternal by our faith in the midst of death.

Too, our Faith invests in the Creative Energies of spirits near to us in mutual affection, but rampantly Different from us in ideas and wisdom: we delight to think of the wonderful Attacks and Plans, Spycraft and Warcraft, being emulated by a body Submitted to the One True Spirit. All work for someone or something; we hear hearty Orders and snap to, get down to business, create and unbind, free and release, all the Bounty of Souls into the grinding machine called Judgment, called Eternity, called Godhead. To liberate, this is warcraft. To prefigure and arrange, this is spycraft. To Understand and to have third eye machinations, this is Divine.

Our intelligence, then, suggests a rock-bottom, no-nonsense, Engagement on a basis understood and delighted in, wondrously grateful for that Simple notion: that we fight for Christ’s Cross, that He is submitted to the will of the Father, and we are therefore already in Tomorrow’s Victory, living and dying in an Elevated and Eternal Framework. We learn no longer to resent the playboys or wild-mannered capitalists in their indulgences: they are a dull murmur or distantly-held affection. We are the True Body, the True Church, and Already we have our marching orders as being Free now of all fears of aging and of losing our Joyous Edge. We are free of escapism. We know, too, the pained dichotomies or Wars as emulated in the sense, “I can’t go on”. As emulated in “I’m under severe attack”. Because we Mimic and Emulate each other, we see “their” pain and fear as our own. We are Christian, after all. We suffer like Christ did, Oh, are we innocent? Well the more we then have to offer on the altar, our innocence for their pain and aggression. We gift Cruciform, selfless, gifts to each other, in hopes that some patience will prevail over the hackles raised. We can do only this: no brawn nor bulk will earn the kind of allegiance Christ sought in His people. Our brawn is Patience, is Forgiveness, is Joyous surrender, is Wonderful and Meaningful interaction.