“25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matt 6:25-34 ESV)

Life on a precipice, somehow our vulnerability—to slander, to makeshift arguments, to poor theology—in no way takes away from the hearth, the day’s-end warmth, the morning delight, and the afternoon stoic calm. Stoic resolve, the fact is, economics and rule of law alone almost deny a hard-won learning or fact: that nothing is going ahead and preventing, that nothing is preventing the obtuse, illogical, obsessive, fault-finding spirits from having their reign. It can seem that Nothing stands between us and abuse, slander, malicious gossip.

Were we the first to point out: Man stands in sin, and in his proud boasting he or she undoes and forgets prime prize land, the prize of Christ for us. So to the day’s illogic and precipice: it comes down to praying for enemies and friends alike, because an Enemy can undo much received tradition and commonplace Grace. By starting an argument on obtuse footing. By the shrill pack-animal Cry that something sinister is afoot. By the internal trust mechanism that outlets itself in the plain plea: hear me! I am speaking scout’s honor! I am speaking as if to a trusted Parent or Guardian!

Two sides, and both can be winsome and really spell the day all things told. The deep secrets, of the Christian’s efficacy in the world, of the way a Cruciform theology mints little believable scouts, the inability to “check in” and ask the opponent what their take on it all is: on some level all of us, in Christ’s judgment (“the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22)) are likable, believable, warming, trustworthy. And to see that this revered Figure in our lives, that they have a hidden side called Corruption, Ambition, Denial: this is to lose a certain faith in the system.

Two sides, and the vast horizons wherein each side’s talons or tentacles have reached: everyone should take a chill pill. They should stop Worrying about the changing of the guard or the new thing in the Air. Jobs… some will be relegated to the dustbin, but others will spring up as well. Churches… some will wither and go dry, but others are already bursting forth. Companies… some will fall victim to unprophetic management, but others are already engaged in a civil contract with their staff and communities.

It bears repeating that to pick up the phone, to wave “Hello!”, to get on with the Master’s business… together: this is really a luscious and should-be tempting outcome. It spells the end of all the arrows lofted our way, those arrows we have stoically, fasting, prayerfully lived through, our own little Schindler’s list of friends and needy ones taken in, taken care of: in all this we are unappreciated and Faulted. Each side in the dispute, indeed, is likable and winsome. Ourselves included. But to break out of the monotonous malaise, it takes real fire under our feet and hero’s courage, even though the alternative is banal and boring. It takes a shove or a push, even, on some spiritual level.

Because the first fact of War is that insanity mocks our resolve, and insanity lifts first one up and then lowers another. In the Last Days there will be prophecies and prophets, soothsayers and little striving ones. Monsters and horsemen shall arise and appear quite in-your-face Large. Only to diminish and shrink back, in deference to the One on a donkey, whose coming again was foretold in wishful prophetic vision of a military Victory Lap. Only to us, it is a perennial War: we learned from His first coming that the Christ would suffer and Die. Each of us, then, is fortified: right? One would think the historic writ, the record of the Cross, would save our own hide from repeated abuse of the saints, but no: the record of the Cross exists to strengthen those facing a New-fangled Cross, one of this era and age. Many have adopted and shouldered this hard wooden X. Many have been encouraged to know that some Jesus of antiquity, already spotted the flaw in the sophistry or lazy judgments of the Priesthood. It really is a magnificent Victory we’ve won in Him. Because even if at times it seems like child’s play, it is because of the untold mammoth Weight of the opposition, that we are given small victories to start out with. They may seem par for the course, but no! This was a real Divine Aid and Victory! We shall prevail!

To mesh, to find oneself suddenly in the same food lines and subsequent stages of battle formation, together: this is to cease abusing the little people who happened—no fault of their own—to be the catchall in-between souls in the Game. This is to believe, not just in a legalistic Movement wherein the high are brought low and all things owned are tithed into the hands of the church: no, this “Taste” for Christian “judgment” forgets that theology all along was subtle and existential. It forgets that all are in urgent need of the same unction. It forgets that sometimes the prodigals in our midst, these counterbalance their acknowledged guilty conscience, with the Right to execute Goodness on behalf of the more sly or subdued longstanding members. And in turn, those “good Jews” will themselves be restored and end the day on a higher plateau (Romans 11:17ff). For, the fault lies in the preaching because it doesn’t at times actually Forgive, but instead creates the very sins it tries to delineate. It is filthy talk, unsober criticism, lurid fantasy. We, however, stomach it… and in so doing, easily forget: you, O child, were supposed to be receiving Goodness and Honor, as all are entitled—in Christ’s Kingdom—to receive. Do not lose sight, in your cage-fighting resistance, of the complete opposite Tack, where you are Blessed and Beloved, Honored and Upbuilt.