“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 Co 2:6–16 ESV)

Waves of grace overwhelm the saint in the field, upon some Encounter with endings, dying, brinksmanship or nearness, risk-taking, cogent Action. Because what is therein Tested is our notions of deity. We are Tested, and does our Faith go soup to nuts? Does our Faith place hope on wrong notions of a benevolent Spirit “out there”? Is our Faith too convenient, originating in sad dreams of just who and what God is? But again, the bookmarks are in place, the Testimony, once dreamt upon or sadly Encountered post brawl, post consummate night, post crazed stupor or Moment of Clarity: that God is in the business of Urgency, urgent need meets Flipside Encounter. He is real; that bookmark… it points to the Eternal, to words without Limit, to stories and parables countless, unending, paving a way unto a dreamscape Ascent. Toward the Heavenly. Towards the God of the poor, poor in Spirit, poor in Niceties, poor in Convenient giftings.

Waves of Goodness remind the Saint in the field, of a more Mature or Experienced form of sacrament, of Worship, of Together Submission: to the persons we love, to the family members at large, to the Teammates most Benign, Gracious, Present; that Peace rooted in duality: personally, contrite, self-abnegating, dubious, and corporately, together Generous, Loving, Encountering in blissful reverie, that Gift called Affectionate coming together.

Because totems are many, and all of us deify some sense of Deservedness or Justice. We may even be guilty of making the argument that we “deserve” some brand of equal treatment, notwithstanding that life, national interest, is Capitalistic, survival of the fittest, even. All hopefully are Equal under the law, but likewise all hopefully are granted Bedrock welfare. That the bottom is cushioned and even supple, to hold up those in any Affliction. To hold up, not because we Envisioned God being there, but because of a trust fall, no end in sight, no bottom to the denigration or evil, except that we once Believed on Miracles, and that bookmark, that Experiential Provision, was all and total towards Safety and Rescue.

The outbreak, as some point to cognisance, to third eye Awareness, to just right nodding hum, that we “Saw it coming”, only we didn’t. Always, there is urgency met with the command to Rest Up. Always, it seems fitting and ameliorating, seems Providence had clued us in to Tomorrow’s War… haven’t we been praying through this eventuality for some time now? And yes, we have. But the totems, the Godhead “out there”, crushed by Reality, are somehow Resuscitated precisely because we’ve gone Poor, poor in defenses, poor in rebuttals, poor in Popularity, poor in feng shui “coming together” moments. War wasn’t all it seemed to be: the Reality is both more banal, and more severe, than we might have envisioned. Banal, as far as the “cool” factor; severe, as far as the “pained” factor. We are neither hip and cool nor free of pain. It is a dastardly Reality we’ve waltzed into, or, not intentionally Waltzed into, but methodically, dutifully, sacramentally, engaged upon. We were, after all, the earnest ones in the mixture. We were those toeing the Good Line of pacifism. We were always and everywhere submitted to our Totems and deity, yet this was not Guarantee of an easy or supplied Walk. Life is crazy. Life is dastardly towards any religion claiming all answers. Those answers… Christ Himself learned some Answers on the Cross. So, too, we learn never to argue in the name of a false god called “propriety” or “deservedness”. We don’t “deserve” a peaceful repose come day’s end. We don’t “deserve” answers to our inadequate and existential questions. We don’t “deserve” to be cool and hip, agents of some childish Reality, just because someone else is. In all this we are nonetheless more than Conquerors through Him who loved us. We are so Mature in the Faith as to “get along” with what otherwise would be enemies or jealously resented opponents. That is the definition of personal Maturity and learned Faith.