“8 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. 8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”” (2 Cor 8:1-15 ESV)

The meticulous drive to complete what was started, this borders on obsession and compulsiveness, but sets apart a class of warrior who in their personal internal counsel, is peace and all-things. Is all things to a world that diminishes and degrades them. Is all things to a public that wildly bucks and neighs around the halter allotted to it. The rig. The bridle.

More, to see the world through the lens of this Unfinished Business, is to herald in all counsel internal and external, the coming King of the Jews and King of all people. More, as we know Judgment Day looms, we nonetheless see lack of heavy-handedness, we see astonishing mercies gifted to those Called According to His Purpose. They can sing a melody most saline, minus the heavy church which tries—scout’s honor, they plead—to make a buck off of the degradation, not of one man, one woman, but of an entire gender of person or an entire motif of soldier “out there”, in the public receivership, in reputed strengths now slandered and pronounced unliving, dead, destroyed, with caprice and lack of moderation bombing them to smithereens.

They pursue a Peace already allotted to a few of the congregation, those precious few who have not “gone submissive” to rogue theologies and weaselly attempts to toe the line. The weasel ones, they have too long compromised, and resent the air-breathing, fresh-faced, new recruit who is still in awe and wonder at what God has done. No, the hallucinations (“scout’s honor”) and the utter lack of moderation, of not using the bombing device to break into smithereens, this is a chore, perhaps, but a Duty nonetheless to bear some responsibility towards the reputation of a few ‘round here.

Hemmed up, then, fresh out of sick bay, the soldier is Healed and Forgiven not with an eye towards an eternal lawsuit with them, not with an eye towards a rumor to re-raise whenever they “get ahead” of the pack. No, we are healed and forgiven with an Urgent realization: soldiers need wholeness and completion in order rightly to Serve. A soldier with a broken or impaired limb, they cannot quite be the spitting image of rectitude and uprightness, they cannot plant the seeds of peace nor the checkpoint of conservative caution. They need healthsome heart and limb to minister to a public gone rogue, as the salt and light of the world, as those who “get it”, get the dynamic between natural functions of the person-in-community and natural obedience, salinity, worship from the soul.

More, it just don’t “make sense” to the pundit, how and why sins ever occurred at all: they wish for salacious details, they imagine dynamics unreal, they glare and even try to suggest new sins never before struggled with. Mind games, mind reading, and the socialized Being: he or she simply concedes with a guilty grin, precisely the grin being laser-focused in eye contact from the alleged Saint in the mix. They want answers to the most salacious questions the mind and filthy heart can come up with. “How did Adam meet Eve? Did he hold her hand? What did they talk about?”

Today, according to the Good Counsel to say no more, we put away all filthy talk and all that corrupts the knighted soul. The soul is well counseled to dream Big and go Large, on the promise of a future not laborious, not with empty consolations like the numbers or the quantities of friendships and spiritual progeny some have had, but with Eye on the Patient and Fresh-Faced soldier, who has no numbers, who has no proud boast, who represents only a little corner of the world, and one they will even in gamesmanship deny a bit, if so asked in social setting. Only upon realizing their denial, they will risk life and limb not to deny the People of that Holding. Their family and precious few loved ones. Their “go to” as far as who they daydream about, or virtually place questions before (“what would so-and-so think?”). In all these things we are most to be pitied if we are rich in the world, and most to be emulated if we are poor.