“16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul Addresses the Areopagus 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.” (Ac 17:16–34 ESV)

A body of knowledge builds up. A stratagem is deduced in the field. Always less than perfect, is the saints’ way forward. The soldier of Christ, it isn’t some innate Genius, no Stroke of Luck, but rather a warroom mentality around what our Gospel Promises, and a willingness to Push. More, to Push with Instinctual, Designed, Theorized, and eventually Perfected poise. How we see or “model” the things, the factual situational awareness: enemy number one, he or she is playing a vicious, really quite smart all things told, game. And our Response? No, we linger not long in exasperation or self-righteous exclamations: their Stratagem, to “Their People”, is a hefty one, respectable and sanguine. But ours… it, too, carries water, and “Oh!”, the tides, riptides and gentle washings, overflow us and we are Astonished Anew, at just how Christ is found in His people.

“They” had a manner most gentle, until our own manner entered the fray. “They” had a deuced and devilish Wisdom—concede this much, and it becomes a more respectable War—about how things like Christ-hood, Sainthood, Theologies of prophecy, and hopes and dreams, all come together in a wide Religion. And so did we, only… books could be written… we need to study the propaganda, to enmesh in the vitriol, to Refuse the obsessive finger-pointing: we make no one Woman, one Man, into a wonder woman or man, but we see that even Christ Himself prayed together with His disciples, and who are we, not Christ, not Perfect, not Sovereign Sons and Daughters all on our lonesome, to think we can get anything done minus the heave-ho of a Team?

The winning ticket isn’t going to the smartest or most theoretically profound and accomplished (contrast to just the first few chapters of a text in mathematics or science of name-your-poison-here), but to some way our Hearts are found, seen, observed, to be In the Game. And this, it doesn’t flatter us with grand designs or accomplished platforms of Respect. No, it is a streetsweeper mentality, that we go “boring”, even as if motivated by the numbers and statistics. We are simply in the game of helping a friend in need. Simply in the game of fighting against the sad but real Frontline Enemy. We are finding our peculiar joy, our horizons, and our Waiting Game, around Ministry: to the skeptic, to the oppressed, to those beset by scandal, to the duality-aware, that is, those Aware of two quite alluring and copacetic Voices, Teams, Mindsets. If our voice is a helping hand, how much more this delicate voice of a would-be Enemy? How much more are they toying with things Holy? Trust and mission, diabolical naming of an enemy and obsessions?

Our route is no fantasy of some guild whose approach is somehow Elite or More Informed, More Sanguine (not jumpy, not falsely amped, not reactionary), More Deduced and Logical. Our fantasy, our Today Bargain with Life, is that heroism and genius comes from a sister or brother In the Faith, a New Outlook wherein we do Honor those others in the community. For their Innate Created Status, as really the unthanked and passed over Boots on the ground and minds in the foray. The experience of How we Met, the scene with live ammo that was shared: this gives us wings to soar, new friends and old, because we are Outward Minded, Outward Looking, not festering in selfish caprice and prodding of each other, but Outward and Genuine, Sincere, and Gladsome to extend the hand of fellowship, to others we now Respect as somehow and peculiarly Genius, even if it is a Genius only in the shade or inspired trends of their personal Jesus and Christ. The disciples were Genius. They were content to be in Servant Mode, and so are we, loving and falling head-over-heels in love with the Dynamic and Duality: of our Master in Arms, servant of Christ, soldier of National Unity, whose Unction came to us in the form of a Father on High whom we scarcely see, except that we Experienced this as therapeutic, missional, of an Urgent Brand.