“2 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Wisdom from the Spirit 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:1-16 ESV)

Life soars upon positive and blossoming, burgeoning keystones, and at the same time the Soldier’s wily Interpretation counts utter cynicism as the Game Play, the Modus Operans, the Reality Engaged. The soldier is held aloft by such Over-the-Top “it just works”—see the community writ large, the functional aspects of life together, the big business and down-market entertainment avenues, the schooling and the Religious Life Together. Yet all of it is Flawed and makeshift unto a devilish bind or two, the Soldier first and foremost Weaponizes around the happenstance revelation: “well, surely by and large this is an Innocent party to the hour”, versus, “wow, lust and convenience, a little come-what-may sinfulness, everyone with their escape valve of breaths of fresh/sinful air”.

The soldier rightly Labors in deep Certainty that her or his status quo, engaged outlook, participatory good will, optimism, is one that Forgives the errant ways and the mistaken outlooks. The soldier is at his or her Checkpoint at large, laughing to have Reformed one’s own Lives, whilst still hearing—what is your level of conversational sophistication? Hearing flattery at times—but that being Welcome as the sinner Engages the Hour. Hearing sorrow at times—but that being Welcome as we overlook all flawed, sinful “other things”. Meaning goodness at times—but that in spite of the by-and-large offensive, shocking, even, way of cruising through the pain zones. Of social lives. Of urgent Dating or Fellowshipping by folks whispering to each other of the threat on the other street corner, the pain of family life, the sense of no tomorrow except in it Together and Collegial.

The Christian is working to Hear and to Act rightly and innocuously patient towards Goodness but resentful of Evil. The Christian is at times Shocked: forgetful, and this rightly so, of the myriad strands of ill-begotten lives together. More, we learn to Adapt and Hear only the In-The-Hour dialog, the focused and relatable dialog with Each Other, as opposed to a full-on confession: last hour, last night, last week, I was highly Engaged with a foe unwelcome at our churches, a foe whom I approached in full-on Dialog, non-judgmental and Engaged. Such was the ebb and flow of Life Together, in Unity, in Community: Christian, here, and Soldier-at-Large there.