“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Cor 1:3-7 ESV)

To talk shop to a Christian, this is to discover place for Vacuum, Harshness, Severity, as notions, as concepts and themes, because nothing simply floats along, life-as-life-comes. The nature of sin is that we don’t fast it out of ourselves, we don’t achieve some Heavenly benediction or plain Peace, minus the dastardly Fact of sin. Minus the War of compromise. Minus the balancing act with all efforts to be compassionate, to love on, in unromantic and friendly fashion, to think we can Fix Things by our passionate embrace or our self-adoring Benevolence.

More, the harshness Teaches a new rhyme, that of worrisome Prayer no longer worried, found in the cubbyhole or prayer-closet of the warrior. Because to overextend ourselves, to go utterly berserk and bozo, addicted and escapist, not knowing even the hour of our days as they sadly go by, this is a Placeholder for factually early, youthful angst, abuse, forgetfulness, abandonment. We were Abandoned, or not Understood on the church’s Altar, and this created some need we pass over often in Silence, it being too Religious and Awesome in its power and impact. 

Severe self-discipline, this is just to remember, we don’t rationally talk ourselves to a semblance of Normal, a New Normal, a Passionate peace or quiet: instead ours is a War requiring dastardly and unforgotten Passion of Attack, to crimp and make haste, not to fuss around imperfect Cut and Stitch. Life, meanwhile, is a bucking bronco meets an ebb and a flow, the stark Alert Nature of temptation meeting the quieter semblance of just reasoning through it all, “Just resolve to say No” is a fine mantra, until we must scream and gesticulate our No. Our Yes, our No, we picture Dying to Sin, we picture Extreme Measures of encounter with the Holy, we endeavor upon Cutthroat dialog with the trials and with the hunger.

This fashions new and peaceful soldiers out of each comer, as we do find Oasis, Respite, Reward at the other end of the dastardly Tunnel. We see our own embarrassment, our weary or unchaste ways under the influence of anything, any substance or weariness that confuses, meets the Plainspoken Hero of another person’s sociability and compassion, even under said Abuse or Weariness. People are quietly Heroic, and we, too: we live alongside what on the surface is Trial and Temptation, but to the Hero in the Trenches, it is par for the course, some third way is waltzed and walked along. There is Rest for the weary, and plainspoken Friendship that triumphs over the mocking slander or caricature.

The soldier is Stark and Bleary-eyed because he or she is fighting within. Meanwhile the endless lies we tell ourselves, our so-called Control issues and claim to be Sane and Helpful: we must meet Stark Harshness and Severity, ever to attain to that Oasis and that real flattery or coming-alongside in the Spirit. Being Prepped, Socially-Trained-Up, Aware of the Enigma and the Dynamic betwixt, these things coax us towards Concentrated Output, as the songs circle around in our head and as the “I can’t Cope!” beckons to be spoken. But there is rest for the weary. There is Reward, of some almost too frustrated Rest around the fireplace and hearth. We were so Tried as to finally find our rest rather obnoxious or screaming right through the New Quiet. Let us cry out about how Harsh it all was! Only hear this, this rest is yours to Own and to intake without any longer a complaint on our lips.