“7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8  do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9  where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10  Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11  As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (Heb 3:7-19 ESV)

The scrappier aspects of interaction, remind us of Perma-Strife. To some, any and all discord is something fretful: these are in denial about the ongoing Civil Strife. These have not been reared in a contradictory community. These doubt that there is any original Sin in their own hearts. These do not Appreciate the Overman, the Ubermensch, of assertion: sometimes, peoples and groups and conjoined social Minds… just work. Work, in that sense of expulsion from the Garden, but lovingly—by the Father—given something to occupy our time, to utilize our bodies, the Man, the Woman… and so our blip of Goodness, this is against a backdrop of Strife. Strife denied. Strife approached with mock horror. Strife assertively bombing and appalling the would-be Do Gooder.

The Do-Gooder: such were each of us. Such were we, and perhaps we are content with peanuts whilst the Pastor in Chief, or the Head Honcho, the Top Dog of matters theological, is crying crocodile tears about Original Sin. He or she… they are Right to mourn, but also Right to listen to the Crew and Congregation as they speak up: dear Soul, be stalwart, stoic, reserved, strong. Be all these things, so that you can Enter into the Master’s Rest. So you can be the Elder Brother who cares for the younguns, sometimes in ways of dubious Training Style, how to train, how to Motivate… all these things properly lent to the Elder in the mix, because we Vote and we Love on each other, having a debt we can never repay, and we kill our gods, we kill our heroes.

The Do-Gooder, already the lines are contentious around that Boast. We have learned to scoff at the doctrine of Good Works but easily forget: take time, O Pilgrim, to Teach, to Educate those of lesser training up than what you yourself have. And See: you are a Good Soul, O Pilgrim.

The scrap, then, the scrappy Encounter, then, is a game of shouting and shoving, rather than outright Murder of the Spirit. It starts like so, and we pray, outlets, discharges, exhumes, the Dispassionate Hatred. It outlets and inhales, exhales, bodily involved and measuredly Calm. We are Better than their high tables and conclaves, for our Dispassionate Acquaintance with War. Somehow, the former urchin now King or Queen, is more Calm and Peaceful. The Elation of Peace, this is all the more understood in light of the Present Distress, the Contretemps, the amazing Prophecy that there will come a time: that these present Hours will be on record as ones we are most longing for, grateful for, reminiscent of. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

To appreciate… because already the Doctrine is in place, that we have Burdens, Crosses, Hardships, beyond the common lot of Man. To have this peaceful encounter, it is a miracle in itself… for all life is pain and suffering. All accolades are brief and temporal. All Cause is a momentary insight, only shared for a brief second. We have this militant Cause called Christ, but we also fear the bitter day’s end, alone, out in the cold, absent the fellowship. Yes, because of having Suffered Once in the flesh, we are the more Pragmatic than our heavy-breathing fright-mongering Pastors. These pastors, they know Original Sin, but have not so acquainted themselves with it to the point of being the lower deck, the lower classes, the Determination—yes, I already knew of the Pain—to Celebrate notwithstanding. The fear and scare tactics have already worked their injected and internalized Pain. We need Hope. We need Victory. We need Peace.