“17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy. 3 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. Timothy’s Encouraging Report 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thess 2:17-3:13 ESV)

Having once stated our convictions, life on wings and a prayer hopes for a return to, an invite unto, a Together Sweetness of the lush climes of membership. We love upon some atmospheric Space for the Traveler, Room to Grow, nay, to Thrive. Because our faith… this is an Evolved ecosystem, a Progressive creed, a Designer catechesis.

We long for membership insofar as we have learned a thing or two… about ourselves, about life on this terrestrial ball, about God for us: that all things are indeed wrapped up in Sin, but that God has gone urgently to the heart of the matter, become Present and Dutiful for solely us, even, insofar as the high and lifted-up Godhead is a Personal Deity and one Caring individually for each of us.

Indeed, the mantra… it is no design for victory, just an observed Fact… the Mantra is that with God on our side we can face Anything. God will be with us. And this is no reflection on what is simply Man, Woman, Jefe, Boss, Authority Figure, but a reflection on plain Spirit and some wild-eyed way: God is leading Human civilization… where will we be in a hundred years?… to face the intractable and sharpen forth into the unknown. God has a Plan. God is generous and serious, persistently pleading and Severe.

Then to Sign Up is to do the victory lap and enter into Glory. It is to realize a grand central station of comings and goings and life on this planet suddenly Busy and Cared For. We are Cared For and Busy with loving plentitudes of jobs and actions: give them jobs, and all will be well! We have strangely as well, professional camaraderie even with those on the other side of the aisle, the foreign national, the non-believer. Even as our blustery windy central station is abuzz, it is abuzz with our stated Conflict and War but even as such we are in the same league of professional Respect for those with whom we do battle.

Almost and at times: likewise we Hate and Edge Out the combatant who seems to follow no norms. The combatant who seems to spit in the face of Christ, or be flagrantly disobedient to the conventions of war. Our war is therefore both a new normal, and a hair-raising Encounter. To see what things we fight over, and what things we revere as too holy… to see our disinclination towards boredom, towards mediocrity, towards finitude, and our amorous Claim laid upon the Divine: this is to cease worrying over combat ritual and to start worrying just upon those sheep in our sheepfold, those parents we lovingly care for in their aging, those of a previous generation who we wish somewhat to please, but also whom we do not tarry long over, when Christ calls our name.

To thus be Called is thus to be inducted, no time, scarcely time, to mourn what we leave behind, but to rediscover the hundred-fold reenactment and return of said friendships, as promised in Scripture. We will be astonished to find others have likewise Grown Up, Matured in our absence, and our New Creations themselves! We love to find our former friends thus situated. And Doing Battle already, this was no pie-in-the-sky solo trek. We found our sweets and our salts, our carnivorous meats and our potatoes, in a wild new Journey called Blessedness. The gates opened up… and here was the Augustinian City of God. Busy with all manner of craft, not apologetic about the wartime mentality, too joyous and busy to hate or to get frustrated about our enemies. We pray that each depressive soul, each clutching or panicky soul, come to Christ, that is, that Christ be invited in as He patiently knocks at the door of their heart. Because all systems go, accelerant and speedometer, are off the charts, invitational and Erasing of what formerly we clutched to or were frightful to let go of. Our principles… these wrap up in our New Lessons in Grace: principle, we conclude, will take care of itself. Grace will be the unpoliced thriving of the soul, gladsome and generous in kind, because Christ was generous with us. 

What should we fear, when confident, composed we can face even jail or a helter-skelter life in the trenches, having once Touched the enemy now permanently Hated and Barred. More, we ourselves can face up to anything in the knowledge and patience of Accepting that Christ met us Early: early in our sinful ways, early in our innate selfish drives, early in our inchoate irresponsibility. Look: we are Flawed, both in frustrated Moral sense and in simply our Picture of the Ideal man or woman, that we ourselves fail to be. See how untalkative we are, or how socially inept (at times, but who isn’t, at times?). See us fail friends and lovers alike. See us fail to lead, or fail to stand strong when once we’ve made an incision, a difficult Decision, a Personally-Responsible judgment call. We need Purposeful Love directed our way, and this is found in the Celestial City. Where we can gladly Work throughout the long hours of the day. Where we can be Certain we are talkative and melodious in our outlay, forgiven for so much… let lover of friend talk us through all that, we are not fazed. We are not forgetful, though we forgot at some point to be Considerate… of what someone else is going through, of their perspective on us, on our query, on our request. In all this we are conquerors through Him who loved us and who gently pointed to Higher Concerns: let us be excellent when duly challenged, even if sleepy or inept around the simpler duties. Life is on the line, lives are on the line, and in this knowledge it is difficult to please the simpler fellows, gals, and their simpler tastes. But also, we are walking in knowledge Christ is Employing us and giving us License to Be, to Exist, to Belong, to Thrive. We have this confidence within us, because He believed in us to start it all out. And in this knowledge the present Distress is wrapped up in the knowledge of Miracle and Immediacy, strange bedfellows but yes we can be patient even as the enemy urges us to panic.