“19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Do Not Be Anxious 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:19-34 ESV)

Most basic traits are taken on faith: the Christian cannot comprehend just how to “Do Good” in this life is somehow an evolved or “winning” strategy. Strange parries, strange outlays, strange selfless endeavors, these are juxtaposed with unfoolish Fidelity: sometimes to do well by oneself is in fact the Evolved and Saintly way, the Way that benefits others the most. But the internal dialog! The seeking, or origin stories, of Ways Forward sublime, of how we calculate and “pray for” one another; surely broken vessels are we! Surely accidental are so many of any “Good Works” engaged upon, endeavored upon. So to those with the literature, with the Scripture: it is Wisdom and secret Knowledge what these who have the literature do know… about our Christ, about our families and lineage, about our One Man, One Woman syndrome (until New Testament time, when that sole hero—think David, and in passing think Jonathan—is replaced by twelve sympathetic souls, by a duality—again, like David and Jonathan—between Christ and John the Baptist). 

To endeavor after the cool calculation of warm elegies most Christian, is the soldier’s way forward. All things told, we cannot guarantee why our movements are Evolved and Pertinent. We cannot guarantee why this self-sacrificial Calculation is an evolved trait or a saintly disposition. We cannot guarantee why this “praying for others” is anything less than fantasy-speak, fantasy-meme, fantasy-thought. That we put others before we ourselves: again, an evolved Trait, wherein God rewards the selfless giver in due time.

So to that Certainty: the right dialogs are happening, the cage-fighting is taking place, the Peoples, they are circling and murmuring prayers around the Family of Faith, around the Body of Belief, around the Circumstances of Conviction. Sometimes, Jonathan-like, John the Baptiser-like, to elevate someone else, this is to find rapprochement with the good tidings, with the all-blessedness, with the Feng Shui.

More, the soldier on the front lines, for what silly ideology did you Die today, O soldier? Was it worth it, after all, your inability to negotiate over the barrels of two pointed guns? Your kamikaze craziness around just what “inspiration” has called forth in your Actions? Yet we Believe, that solemn Purpose, Life Experience and Education, these form and gestate to create Bold Beings, those who—for all their nits and faultlines—are Inspired and Engaged, giving their All just by way of expressing anger or calm. The Grace lines, these are strange experientials around negating the domineering un-Calm. We negate the obsessive seeking of personal accolades. We negate the calculated seeking of accrual of monies and items of tangible wealth.

Inspired in said Holy Hour, we lunge forth lightly held, an “unbearable lightness of being” meets cold steel Resolve. Who are we, after all, to claim Any heraldry or decoration? We are those whose calculations are not Selfish, not Cool Calculated, not Ambitious and Self-Seeking. Yet, to have prayed for others, to enjoy a good chuckle every six hours or so, all such workings of the soul are Beneficial to those called. We can forgive ourselves for the fanciful Wedding Supper of the Lamb dreams, because of servant-minded Placement in said ceremony. What a dream, to have all things most existentially Available, that we can give thanks out of our penury and paucity of possessions. Give thanks for that solemn Role, give thanks for that forward-positioned Dream, give thanks for that Permanent Resolution that we are on the side of right. We are, after all, strangely fascinated with the two sides “getting along”, or with “ma and pa” learning to love each other again. We seek Holy reasons to dispute, along the lines of solemn Respect, that we cannot wish things away or snap our fingers and make the frustrating thing dispel. Life is like that prayed-for unconverted soul: God is knocking at the door, but that is all He is doing. We need time and circumstance, prayer and Hope, that those born of spiritual stock, positioned in spiritual lairs, will do the spiritual thing and Bless: our prayer for the enemy is just like Christ’s Call of the disciple: “follow me”. Come, let us reason together. See that we bear up under the cool shade of the eucalyptus tree, the fig tree, the Castor Bean tree (Jonah’s).

And to the faultlines too painful, the lack of Trust fall faith in each other, the umpteen times Dumped and Jilted: sometimes the best Testimony of our faith is nonetheless to Surrender, that is, to Forgive and pray for our enemies, to be that Jonathan to David, that Baptist to Christ. We can also forget just who we are, in and of ourselves: that many interactions have curated us to this present day, that there are friends networks and acknowledgements passed about, so as to make each of us an integral part of a tapestry called Life in Community. And as we ponder how to make the best use of the hours of our days, we see Return to Life! The friend or neighbor again Giving, like she or he used to, giving the compliments, earning the keep (some dishes to do “around here”?), and “yes, dear” becomes a silent prayer of thanksgiving that so many such souls are—innocently, with childlike exposure and trust—still walking these streets and the community.