“7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Ask, and It Will Be Given 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! The Golden Rule 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. A Tree and Its Fruit 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:1-20 ESV)

A confluence of good tidings and the Saint is able well to reckon with stark contrast, mourning meets elation. Good tidings such as miraculously appear in history, while we ponder why civilization in an earlier decade or century wasn’t more radicalized or Aware: God’s Word is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword. This is the Word that—in mourning the loss of a friend, in excitement around the Promise of tomorrow—coaches us well to Internalize, Sense, Discern very trying times to come: life will be spooked and major Decisions will be made, does mankind hoard and apply mankind’s definition of evolved life together, or is there some Mystical Headship, Leadership, Guidance around just what logic Pertains?

Too much potency, they say, around Absolution, last rites, confession, meal. But the existential Reality that encourages the soldier, is the existential reality that we go for broke around Inspired leadership and personal Recognisance: I feel this is right, that is wrong, all told I am apprised—in the Spirit—each day, with one step further in the reckoning, who is doing what, how blessed are the Saints in the land for their ingenious responses, biblical responses, story-telling by way of honoring Prophecy and Christ’s parables. Each day we go a step further, until arriving full circle at a more Enlightened variant on where we began.

Because the saint is also wise, like a serpent, like a dove: to puzzle over knowledge not yet attained as the years went by, the weird ways we never quite grasped what the game was, that to a law firm all people are law firms, they speak an agreed-upon language even nominally going to lawsuit with each other. Likewise, many judges speak this language. But to the underrepresented ones, to those without financial means or—what is worse—no way to find quality counsel, to these the law firms in our milieu may even be throwing in the towel: too much.

Because it is tragic even to have complaints against one another. More, each of us has injured pride on some front, we hate the one who seemed to patronize us and talk down to us: once I was hip, now I’m a loser like you, a Christian loser and nothing more… imagine!

But to the battlefield Decision-Making: we are melancholy as somber music plays, that never do we make war the “new normal” nor do we forget its tragedy: lives will senselessly be lost. Objectives, for all the might in the world, cannot persuade a devoted jihadist or suicidal one. So being that soldier is our career, it is also a career that wishes and prays for its conclusion. But to the Decision-Making: it really does mean something to balance both fastedness and knowledge-intake: reading the headlines, though they be a secular effect not something Sacred. Because they remind us of the world’s judgment. They remind us of the toes we want to avoid stepping on. 

Beauty derives from the most hidden-in-plain-sight no-go-zones. Politeness, submission, socialization, and illogical Facets are launched forth, illogical Beauty, Handsome endeavors, precisely because the backdrop melody was of life such as it is in any matter of fact Experienced. It was a melody melancholic but bold.

Tomorrow holds a promise: no matter how victorious the present day, there will always be some lunged-forth reaction of Satanism. The success in the present war will only create ghouls and temptations Anew. We do well in our elation and hip stride through the Idea Spaces, to mourn and to intake the Stark Reality of Loss, of Miscommunication, of Jacob-Like deception, the ways in weird fashion we are even suggestible by the enemy: our own failures to have the “hip” or “knowledgeable” take on affairs, because we were wrapped up in terms not set by us but dictated by our foe. We were persuaded into Answering their nonsense, their balderdash and pomp, circumstance most vocal. Because strange days… the Deception to some is par for the course… just like the lawyer’s special inter-collegiate Language… we are those wise around evil, but would that we could just be gladsome and Sincere ourselves. So we struggle, and try to straddle both sides. Christ’s Hope, wisdom’s caution. And we’ve played a few chess games in our time, to know of false fronts and deceptions, of a radicalized Foe, one eager to see others fall because they harbor a Hurt.

That Hurt… Jacob’s Deception… is too tragic for words, but such was Life, that some were destined to be the spiritual father or mother of many, and others had a meek kind of calling, either to have suffered Loss, or just to be in one-person servant relationship. Somehow Christ exalts such as these… their place in the Kingdom is assured, is paternal and maternal to Many… and while we are Hoping for a bright tomorrow, God’s timing calls for Patience: He is Lord of lords and King of kings, but not everyone knows Him, His monitoring presence is not some patronizing universality… there are tragedies He simply watches unfold.

We have our homeland and our cultural artifacts, more, we have the Cities and Towns holding Precious life-together. Holding artisan quality affects and postures. These must never be bandied about carelessly, handed over to an Enemy in the midst. More, we have Biblical Law to inform and lead us, through hair-raising compromises and… to that Fast, to that Refusal to read the headlines: we become Saints and become Better People, to such an extent we are harassed and harangued by the under-evangelized. Their resentment for us having Christ and them feeling that they do not (all in their imagination) breeds immediate War. So we judge them by their fruits, judge the Mohammedan by his or her fruits, judge the Jew by his or her fruits, judge the Christ-Follower by his or her fruits. Judge the Stoic, the Buddhist, the Hindu by their fruits.