“2 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not invain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. 9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” (1 Th 2:1–16 ESV)

On some cultural level the lift descends: bunker-level Actionables meet the call to Solemnity, not cute, not just for show, but the barely audible high pitch On Mission bell, the Decisions to be made again and again leaning on a Hope: inspiration; service; respect; aggression; combativeness; Peace. Is it some weird psychological Reality, to be broken as shells insofar as we “snap out of it”, either—no longer the panic attack, what am I doing sitting here, so far from home—the Reflection on our own deities, totem poles, leaning-in-upons, decision-making Assurances, Bedrock. Where were we, after all?

God is some rumor of angels, invisible to the Standard Issue, until said Issue stages a curated Trust Fall, some way we are Never to be taken away from His Love, His Patience, His Endurance. And this occurs because our calling after all was not to be Game Day in any manufactured or customary sense, but a Game Day needing no haste, patiently Arriving despite rumors of War, patiently Arriving at the Godhead leaned in upon, the Patterns matched, the Shell Shock of Life in Community.

Our shells, broken, and weirdly inspired, to be simultaneously High Pitched, barely audible, and to be Societal: intel and militant for Christ alike both indebting to a heavier Decision-Making Apparatus; yet the running Jokes, the spooky music and solemn sense of “things just got real…”, all this separates mere “Culture” from “Inspiration”, “Spirit-Led”, “Inimitable”.

God cannot be faked, and where He shows up, dying is strangely—while feared, while a horizon—strangely passe; we Will resurrect on His Last Day. All sins will be forgiven. We are on assignment, and patiently we Pray: against the Plausible explanation (you… it is just so Plausible that you’d be kindergarten school level as far as Submission to authority, still rebellious, still charting that Good Ship Self). It is just so plausible you’d be smitten, if that email happened to go to a member of the other or desired sex. Plausibility! Or the downward slide of Original Sin: so eager to see someone Fail, so eager to accept the Instinctual rear end shown by way of disrespect.

The Game Day visage, is one Harried but Patient, never forgetting: what would my men, my woman, friends in the trenches, in the new Field Office… it ain’t all magic and good vibes! People’s lives are on the line! What would these friends say about my lifestyle? Would it be evident we wore their colors on our sleeve? And suddenly community went Serious, went Heavy, phoning in a Request, our only Prayer and Request Line to the Almighty is: help me be submitted to whomsoever Approaches, but to do so in Faithfulness to the One True God. All life is a big question mark of our personal Existential Questions, and we do not—unlike Christ—die just to answer the bleating queries of a few wandering souls. Or perhaps we do; vast talents in friend and family alike, seemingly wasted and scarcely utilized; but we have the Mind of Christ; their prayers are heard; in some sense God is using all things in perfect Harmony. Provided we amp up and lance forth Inspired by this same diabolically-heavenly sense of Utter Defeat, Uselessness, and Resurrection furrowed brow become peace and smile, severity turned Bright for the Ages.

“2 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. 9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” (1 Th 2:1–16 ESV)

On some cultural level the lift descends: bunker-level Actionables meet the call to Solemnity, not cute, not just for show, but the barely audible high pitch On Mission bell, the Decisions to be made again and again leaning on a Hope: inspiration; service; respect; aggression; combativeness; Peace. Is it some weird psychological Reality, to be broken as shells insofar as we “snap out of it”, either—no longer the panic attack, what am I doing sitting here, so far from home—the Reflection on our own deities, totem poles, leaning-in-upons, decision-making Assurances, Bedrock. Where were we, after all?

God is some rumor of angels, invisible to the Standard Issue, until said Issue stages a curated Trust Fall, some way we are Never to be taken away from His Love, His Patience, His Endurance. And this occurs because our calling after all was not to be Game Day in any manufactured or customary sense, but a Game Day needing no haste, patiently Arriving despite rumors of War, patiently Arriving at the Godhead leaned in upon, the Patterns matched, the Shell Shock of Life in Community.

Our shells, broken, and weirdly inspired, to be simultaneously High Pitched, barely audible, and to be Societal: intel and militant for Christ alike both indebting to a heavier Decision-Making Apparatus; yet the running Jokes, the spooky music and solemn sense of “things just got real…”, all this separates mere “Culture” from “Inspiration”, “Spirit-Led”, “Inimitable”.

God cannot be faked, and where He shows up, dying is strangely—while feared, while a horizon—strangely passe; we Will resurrect on His Last Day. All sins will be forgiven. We are on assignment, and patiently we Pray: against the Plausible explanation (you… it is just so Plausible that you’d be kindergarten school level as far as Submission to authority, still rebellious, still charting that Good Ship Self). It is just so plausible you’d be smitten, if that email happened to go to a member of the other or desired sex. Plausibility! Or the downward slide of Original Sin: so eager to see someone Fail, so eager to accept the Instinctual rear end shown by way of disrespect.

The Game Day visage, is one Harried but Patient, never forgetting: what would my men, my woman, friends in the trenches, in the new Field Office… it ain’t all magic and good vibes! People’s lives are on the line! What would these friends say about my lifestyle? Would it be evident we wore their colors on our sleeve? And suddenly community went Serious, went Heavy, phoning in a Request, our only Prayer and Request Line to the Almighty is: help me be submitted to whomsoever Approaches, but to do so in Faithfulness to the One True God. All life is a big question mark of our personal Existential Questions, and we do not—unlike Christ—die just to answer the bleating queries of a few wandering souls. Or perhaps we do; vast talents in friend and family alike, seemingly wasted and scarcely utilized; but we have the Mind of Christ; their prayers are heard; in some sense God is using all things in perfect Harmony. Provided we amp up and lance forth Inspired by this same diabolically-heavenly sense of Utter Defeat, Uselessness, and Resurrection furrowed brow become peace and smile, severity turned Bright for the Ages.