“3 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. Timothy’s Encouraging Report 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Th 3 ESV)

Chaotic matters, hideout sublime, edge-of-the-seat posture: the Christian has gone post-ruin, post-false-compunction, pro-Vitriol and Jabber against all presenting Concerns. The Christian has edged out a position sublime, beyond and antagonistic towards, so much riff-raff and stuff that passes as Life’s Substance.

That is, to rediscover Friendship and more Post-Conversion. We are those not destined for self-ruin nor for a Guilty Stride per someone’s charming hypnotic suggestion. Instead, Edginess has landed us in a dim Cave of Brilliance, of stones Shiny and Bright, of a Rejection… no, not of You, O friend of yore, of old, but of life’s comfort zones: would that we were twenty years younger? Hardly! We are at our level-headed Best right now and here!

But it is no small game of dice in the corner that Counts our Religion supreme: it is to Hide away from the voices that mock or surrender or hate on the Self. Who are we? And why, all things told, do we go the Risky route of Encounter unmeasured, risking to speak one word that might Undo us at least psychologically-speaking: one Word that denies or that mocks our own Efforts so lengthy, so Multitudinous, so Many.

And to the Community’s gestalt, again, we go Rogue and Hideout sublime, to the Post-Encounter, the Post-Socialized, where All Things are under His purview and largesse: His Giving Nature, His Care for the sick and the soul-sick, the Suicidal, the Destructive of selves, the Efforts somehow—no, we never gave slack to the faux Cause—to weedle our way back into a “Normal Life”, unto a yawn and coalescence, submission to the groupmind or social structures… we instead are claiming to be of Good Folk stock, and hope this shows forth in all our utterances.

Both Good Folk and sublime, both Heady and Giving by Nature, and Radicalized and Warring by Factuality. Fact on the ground, that nowhere and in nohow can we simply “go with the flow”: all are tempted this way, or ushered that way, corralled this manner, impinged-upon that manner, and our Destiny is more than anything Due to us: our destiny, whether free or in shackles, whether top of the totem pole (of some totem pole) or rugrats beneath, scurrying for a little snack or sustenance: in all this, we go Post: After-Burner, we go Embrace of the unsuicidal Next Steps: all Errors, all personal Shame, Humiliation, errant Deeds, and we go Rogue unto the status quo: accept, O neighbor, O citizen of this shared terrestrial ball, that as for this household, we shall serve the Lord, a Lord persecuted and Hated, hung on a tree and derided, mocked for His healing ways and benign—acted out—presence.

And to the Inspired After-Burner, the counterpoint to the point, we launch forth subtle, caring to choose our words wisely perhaps, or at least to forgive ourselves the strange inexplicable lunges and missives. We are now Found wallowing in Heavenly Garb, gesticulating, signing, wondrously Dreaming lofty and extensive things. This one has been Touched! The Spirit, He is Real Today!