“12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” (Ro 2:12–29 ESV)

Slammed amidst game-day readiness, life and Cause together Work for the greater good, for the cavalcade of Cruciform standard-bearers, Flags and Momentum of Divine source, of Divine comport, of Divine heading, backdrop, justification for being. We are as though marching to the Name, to the drum Beat, to the weird and wonderful Fact: none is perfect, ideas foment and go in and out of Focus, somehow we are lazing until Game Day Readiness subsumes and takes over. Not because of a soldier’s lazy composition or nature, but because always the ten percent of mind’s capabilities are being used so as the Rest, the ninety percent, may Rest Up and Meet the day’s challenges.

The team-builder, the forgotten Thank Yous, the Healing Word; any good Actor is operating in a statistical Model or Frame, and to be Encouraged, is to give space and Meaning to a more generous Expected Outcome. The opposite of constraint. The opposite of retreat. The opposite of cage fighting. We fight outside the cage, because our Calculations, these have been Blessed by a word in season.

More, the steely resolve is Intervention Prevariant, Cautionary, Aided, and Upbuilt by the saints’ duties in the Land. Our gestalt… it careens this way and that, rampant Ideas floating in and out of the mindspace, the headroom, the soul’s kitchen. We have a Tendency to rediscover that our flesh is sinful, a dream, a passing fancy, but in all things we are Studious as to Sin: the better to see and experiment with it’s fascist Grip, than to go all Denial Mode. Things we can experience and repent of. Jealousies we can entertain and then repent of. Caprice, catty behaviors we can indulge and then repent of. The better to know that Old Foe the Devil. Dastardly stuff, sadly Commemorative stuff, things “behind us” now eeking out a Hearing in our soul’s daydream and night spell.

And then to those utterly Forlorn and Hemmed Up: to these we speak only an obvious and pertinent Word: nevermind the Foe, the Church she needs your Service Now. You are Forgiven, and you are Inducted, herein and for all times and seasons, Now. To steel the Resolve is to face factually that Decisions are—to mock, and to indulge our Desire for always More, more responsibility, more Reality, more Equational Duties—life and death, that it was no Joke our resolve as seen Steeled: it was life and death, and Coaching through the storms, for a would-be Prophet or Martyr, for the Commander in Chief of a cohort of Saints. This was deadly front and center Stuff, for the mightily-by-now Washed Masses. And such were we, in need of a foot-washing or what have you, but now Aped Mad and Not Entertaining the guilt-stuff, the Reminders and weird Fascinations with seeing others Fail.

All of us can relate, all of us are Hemmed In on all sides by the ravages of Time; our days’ prayers these have abundant Power to Heal, yet in forgetful modes it is a nip and tuck in haste, but perhaps Forgetful of so much: as John the Disciple said, books could not Contain all that Christ did by way of miracles and healings.

So to draw Near, to a prior time in life, is again to focus on the Nearness Factors, the blessed Innocence perhaps of certain sins but Patent indulgence in others: the Saint of present day, who curses in the Name (forgive him, forgive her) but on other fronts is Always Absolving everyone he or she meets. So judgment mocks the would-be Perfect Ones. Judgment mocks the would-be Holier-Than-Thou ones. Judgment mocks the Doting or Ambitious ones.