“17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy. 3 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.” (1 Thess 2:17-3:5 ESV)

The persistence of life is a Christian notion wherein both we adopt responsibility for our deeds, thoughts, and actions, and we become willing to offload all Debt to a Father whose love is endless, boundless, eternal. More, this Father is strangely assertive, of firm presentation, calculated and efficacious, while being endearing towards Life and that more abundantly. He doesn’t judge us, at least not in any way that isn’t a paternal gesture, nudge, towards self improvement and recovery.

How is this mystery upheld, of a bold Father in Heaven who simply Accepts us? How is that somehow no pathetic source of comfort and inspiration, rather, a dastardly invite to Thrive, to do Combat, to Contribute, mistakes and suicidal regrets notwithstanding. Oh, did we mess it all up? No matter, Christ needs boots on the ground, and shoulders our pain, our failures, our desire to be cachet, schadenfreude, dutiful, atheistically severe in temperament towards our own Decisions. Is it boring, after all, to carry on? Is it somehow Denying our pugnacious, rabble-rousing, rebellious, Humanity? Indeed, we are all things through His love for the loveless shown. We are all things through His severity towards Himself: “I” shall Die for you, sinful Man, Woman, because it isn’t part of my constitution to renege or judge others. I am determined to Judge all in the light of a prodigal’s father’s compassion, a shepherd’s delight in finding a lost sheep, an unbored Player’s calm and warming time Together, around the fire pit, no finger-pointing nor unforgiveness towards our self or towards our neighbor.

To be lost down the lane of would-be therapy or confession, as followers of the Most High we literally go “post-confessional”: we have little to say, rather, we are an open book and only wish to teach our “confessors” a bit about their role. That always there is war in a man’s, woman’s life. That it is with a vale of tears we recreate or assess the Situation on the Ground: of sibling relationships and rivalries, of parents who dropped us as kids once or twice, of failed romantic sensitivities, of that strange way a wealthy person can literally be despised because there is no justification nor rhyme and reason for their self-centered ploys. That is, naturally people flock to the one with a money clip, but the true Sage Warrior even goes so far as to judge said false light in the community, upheld in the name of Mammon. Of worldly wealth. That is, not all everyone’s deeds are poetically right or absurdly correct or ironical; some things are just lazy and pathetic life streaming through the unkempt bloodveins. And this can affrighten ourselves, that perhaps we are post-repentance on some fronts.

But no! If judgment is both real and severe, so too is Compassion, and Second Chances, Another Day in the glare, in the bleary-eyed Reality. Would it be untrue to tell you, O Soldier, (it is whispered by the Spirit), that your Failures are because you are being Tried, because you were Readied for this Hour by a basic training in which so much transpired, it is weird schadenfreude and dreamtimes strangely recollected: did this already Happen? In a dream? In a hypnotized sleepwalk through life? In some bombarded—psychologically, physically—Trial of the mentalism and physicality? Were we already Proven in the fields of War? Was the prime Message that: we all Fail, and only in post-Failure thinking can we pick up and walk again? Not in having overcome, but in having Failed and that more abundantly? See us strong! No need to belabor our confession.

Therefore all it requires is some Reminder of just who it is who Cares for us, to be readied to pick up the yoke again Tomorrow. God Cares. God has taken the strange trip, perhaps, or gone through the cauldron of flames, to the end of accepting radically diametrically-opposed Realities. No one interpretation, see the alternative! And yet bear faith in the knee-jerk Reaction! That we make good and right Forays and Judgments. That we are obligated to the community, or if therein Forgotten and Unloved, if now an ugly visage on the bus or in the walkways, that we see Art and strangely New Beauty in said absurdity and Failure. We are obligated, if not to the community who shouted “Crucify Him!”, then to the heavenly concord of Angels on High, wherein we awaken post-trip Ready to offload onto Christ our failures, and to Lance Forth into Tomorrow’s War, with our Alacrity and Life-blood. Blood coursing through our veins, a semblance of a Christ-figure vis-a-vis just who we have Leaned On, to tell the right story, to whimper after some Peaceful fraternity, a place where good works and polite fellowship Win the Day. No, if we are to be poured out, even in our happier places, then such too was His Burden, His Cross. And time will prove the truth of even that. To the end of Tomorrow’s Victory, concomitant Party, and good-natured Smile from even those we were shoulder-to-shoulder with in the War Room, in the Trenches, in the Analytic Forays and Purposeful, Thought-Out Missions.