“2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1-11 ESV)

Tears come and weary travelers ask only to be centered: the game chews up and spits out, any who dare to jibe the holy things. To work, to fight, to labor: these things recall cold truths, that our Decisions Matter, that our Actions are in the Lamb’s book of life, that energies—full-on come morning, stoically persistent come noon, and despairingly lagging come nightfall—are finite, only so much we can accomplish in this Life. Even as the horizons seem plenteous and the timelines wide open, we Learn: to work is to pour blood, sweat, and tears, into what to some is Man’s Pride: our labors.

Because our labors… these come full circle to the Pilgrim’s original Calling, to dwell prayerful and upright, to abide peaceful and absent weariness, to launch forth rebellious against sin, pugnacious about sleepiness, determined about dissuading ideas.

We are not those dissuaded, not those entering into a Rut of no-go-zones. All zones are a Go to us who Believe, because God has—not cynically raising specters of lust or temptation or pride—God has blessed and Sanctified all thoughts, all deeds, all concerns. So to that pundit, who screams “Sin!” to all comers: to him we concede not for a moment. It is not intentional Purity that leads us, rather that sin becomes banal, boring, less interesting than the Heights of prayerful Watch, of prayerful Militancy, of prayerful Service. Our thoughts, they come clean and they come as an avalanche, they come in wild recollected Fellowship with spirits at large, with friends past and present, with the Certainty of people and places and things we Lean on.

Because the tears of Hard Work are immediately wiped away, by the Christ who wrestled the demoniac, the maniacal, the possessed. He was feng shui and Calm. He had a few bones to pick around here. He did this unbothered, unaffected, untainted, uninfected, by the spirits He rose up against. He had a mean spirit of Getting It Done ‘Round Here. His lips were pursed. His demeanor was One Man. His rebellion was Mighty. To counterposition oneself over and against the scribes and the Pharisees. To go hog wild in mean demeanor. To parry and raise fists of Spirit, over and against the now-beggarly culprits of contagion.

Contagion no more, One Man set the tone for a few millennia. The power of One… this was all about His circumstances making Him apparent and Clear-Headed. Some circumstances, here Jesus could do no miracles, was one of the rabble, was a passing sprite and spirit. But in His Element: the Christ worked, and fought, and Raised Holy Spectre. He had no time to dally or fuss around the salacious sins, against the indulgent sins: life is much more than this, and we find Rich wealth, places to tear up a bit, places to Embrace and people simply to Love On. We are now Ready and Willing. We are now Inducted into Stern Demeanor, over and against that silly sinfulness, that passing overwhelming sinfulness. We are One, and as One we are Capable and of broad Effect. We affect so much, more than one legally thinks possible for One Person, man or woman. Our decisions, they matter; our scorecard, it is all positive; our lamented sins, they are forgiven.