“13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:13-23 ESV)

Wars vary in premise, with any attempt always to own the “big picture” being laudable but also rarely obtained: wars are of attrition, of boredom, of exasperation, of the endless task of taming the wildebeest. What we are is plain as day, yet both are we called Ambitious, Presumptuous and called desertion, abandonment of office. To tame, to go willingly and with certain gumption that this is our Calling, the Calling of soldiering, the Calling of telling the unwashed masses that both we die for them, and we command them: to appreciate and live quiet and productive lives; to serve in all manner of small ways themselves; to Reflect and pontificate on themes expansive and stellar, mobiles circling overhead of Deities and Law, Purpose and Wisdom, of what is Received and what is Newly Minted.

Minted, as in the Patient rehearsal of the story line, of the romance or the calling from God, of the bat mitzvah or the coming of age. We come of age, and are Encouraged therein to Flourish and still to Recollect, the magic of the moment, the fruit of the romance, the delight of the friendship, the respect of the teachers and parents. Because that wildebeest is bucking and neighing, that catches us… we were doing so well! But that Catches us crimped and staring down a landslide or fire brigade, and in that tested Moment lashing out or Hating on a brother, nerved and unnerved at the same time, with those things we cannot coach glibly into the night.

We cannot always be grandiose, gentle, self-giving, and Understanding. Of others, we are not always Understanding. Indeed, arguably half the church Experience is falsity of feigned Peace where there is no peace. Of feigned “look at me pray” when the prayers are revolving around our good deeds. Of feigned handshake when we are in no way in position to extend genuine Gratitude and Coming Together.

Because as saints we monitor and test our own impulses, test our own appetites, reflect and repent of our own excesses. This is not a condition for salvation, only something that—in gratitude for the salvation already afforded us by Him who loved us—we willingly dare upon, to tread upon lightly and purposefully, rule of life and all being fine as a momentary thought, but not in itself the Gospel.