“12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Co 12:12–31 ESV)

All systems report for duty! The return to centrality, to missional focus, to that strange Pauline encouragement: run, that you may win the prize, is no discouraging factor, rather it is his special way of telling us to channel our life energies into the Vein, the Cipher, the Reactionary Thought: we react, we analyze and respond, we Serve with our mental faculties, to that end of Preemptive Thought: we act, we go forth informed, we query. Sometimes querying in Loud Words, other times in more cautious Check-Ins.

Because hat and calling again reminds us dually of the Race, and of the Rest. That is, no intentional sparse room existential Analysis will uncover the deeper mysteries: that one job, it gives an entire vantage point unexpected, not modelled in active Thought, and so we become those Pundits of a New Creation, actors who Receive (React) but also with great fanfare, cautious fanfare, but newly Emboldened fanfare, cross into the no-man’s land. 

God will rectify all things. God will forgive anything Plaintive or too Hopped Up. God will forgive any Oversight or Omission. Nonetheless we “earnestly desire” the higher gifts. We run, because in a race only one receives the Prize. We resume Missional Framework confident that every labor in the Lord is not in vain. Our labors… get into that Vein again! That waters wash over us in the Accelerant of Chase, Brinksmanship, Pursuit. No time to go depressive! The wings and a prayer will carry us forward into the day and into the night. God is literally handling the Unimagined, the Unforeseen, the strange Reminders which utterly convict, calm, and ready us. We are Readied because it humbles us, to see our best plans and labors come to naught. It humbles us to have a Patient Father Figure above, who foresaw, who has the audacity to Forgive us (“please just give me my due…”), who Still Loves us.

Strange kind of love, that! To ape our every inclination of probing forward, head sticking out from the turtle’s shell, to Meet our own Fate manfully, with feminine Courage and Grace: the house of cards collapses; we cannot any longer demand punishment if punishment is due; the Punishment is too severe, and we need to Accept a God different from our best projections, one who loses no Strength in the mystery of Forgiving Us, rather, Dies for that infamy, that reason we even Hate Him for going to the Cross for us (almost), but are Couched Secure once again come third morning and Resurrection.

The vein of bleary-eyed Race Central effort, this is Paul channeling our every ambition and action-reaction, carrot on a stick, prize at the end of a maze, towards Letting Jesus carry the torch. We let Him carry the Torch of our exemplary and confounded deeds. It is His labor, not ours. We even go Stark: we are liminal and close to the Flame. Close to that weird wild and wonderful Release: we Release into the Subliminal and spartan Day. We release our pride and our Kumbaya moments, for a morning more Stark but Ready to accept the slender variant on Human Religion: religion in a mourned and dying, mournful, Savior. This is light luggage! This is packing light! This is Immediate juxtaposition without middle-men, of Our Fears and His Righteousness. It is immediate releasing Into the Immediacy and Realism of a life now lived Free of Sin and Temptation. Did you get a little too excited around a Good Work? Repent now and live as Bold Sinners. God will use our Vocation in weird wild and wonderful ways, to sanitize or make us Go Sane. To give us Perspective and chaste circumspect personal perimeters. The goal-reward is too Dire, too Urgent, too Immediate, and we its subscribers do accept Utter Defeat, in order that we might with Him Rise Up, utter Impenetrable, utter Formula-Admixture coming together: our pain for His light.