“3 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pe 3:1–13 ESV)

The facet of “I came not to be served but to serve” puzzles our baser instincts. When Christ becomes our sin-bearing substitute, it is factually a far cry from anything “pathetic”, “loserdom”, “uncool”, even though it makes us uncomfortable (first) and then jubilant (second).

Try and coach someone as to their new gig as ministry of secrecy, of intelligence work, of war-time strategizing, and you see the oddity of that Facet of service-minded, humble and Christian, basic toolkit vis-a-vis as brought to Basic Training. Brought to the Table, we are strangely Mindful of the needs of others in our vicinity, we are strangely Kosher and Couth while being rightfully Defensive in posture, Aggressive in ways not about ourselves, Giving in means over-the-top. Over-the-top Giftings and Tithes of our time, of our wealth, of our friends and progeny/offspring: the Israelite parents gave their firstborn male to the synagogue, until it was replaced with the entire offspring of the tribe of Levi, as their substitute.

Try and coach someone to think Beyond their innate Designs on that tribe or crew called Holy, called Militant for Christ, called Platoon and Basic Bunker, and they will realize in time their desire to be Outgoing and Forward and Punchy… all good things. However they may Not See their innate Strategic Absence of Front-and-Center personhood, the Call to self-abnegate and self-erase. The call to Receive abundantly from the Needs of others as they circle and quarrel about each other, and to Respond strangely Militarized and Protected, Sheltered vis-a-vis their Vulnerability and the Gladsome handshake, Gifted Service towards our peers, that this engenders.

And on that day, when the unnervous Commanders Above, Commander in Chief, makes the Call—always with certainty but caution, always with nerves but tendons of strength—to drop the checkered Go Flag across the starting gates, to Blanket the near World with our gracious Ways and Self-Denying Means… is it Too Much to ask we become this to all people and in ways un-self aware? 

On mission, on patrol, on operation: the translation of a childhood spent making jesting but Sincere Military Injunctions and Interventions, Assertions and Presence-Impacting postures, all things today are Post-Experiential: we who Convert to Christ, do welcome the Call to be Post-Experiential: I’ve well and done had my sufficient level of experiences of this stripe or that flavor. I am ready to give it all, because I am Post-Experiential. And if in some strange wise I get Jealous of someone else’s Fabulosity, well I do pray… I pray because I don’t think I ever will get thus Jealous, but I pray. Because to Convert to Christ is to be blanketed, with sweeping waves overcoming our frame, with Love and with New and to us Lasting, One More to last for One Eternity, waves of Sublime Experience: God’s love for us.

The operation is to Share the Good News because the Good News is innately and intrinsically Genius and Designed by a Good Man, a Prophet of the Lord, named Jesus. Sure, dispute His eschatology all you want (“Will Christ come again in militant power descending on a cloud?” But Understand He set in a clockwork Motion an innately Genius Plan for the hopes and couched Dreams of Mankind. One that—and this is why we Fight, why we go Patrol, why we Serve—will Edify and Produce and Inventively Genius-Like Design, a socially responsible New Tomorrow. Already we are there. Already the Dreams are writ in the sky. Already we are a hairs-breadth away from Tomorrow’s Impossible Dream. But—Alert!—the dream is frustrating and jealousy-inducing and Prime for a satanic Attack, on the cusp of Tomorrow, as we go about our Patient and Dutiful Business in the Fort and Camp. And there will be little time for Sadness about what was lost, but Deep Hope God redeems the lost years and our patient suffering-under-siege will perhaps do nothing more but to be a footnote to the Histories Told, that Mankind survived because of little Pockets of Grace, the hideout, the patient sober Prayers of the besieged, the family unit embracing as bombs drop and shells explode overhead. Something of All we Do in Christ’s Name is Victorious, is Genius-for-Tomorrow, is Sublime and Patient to Know: if the Father is unperturbed, so too ought we to take sane council and Hope in the Future. It will be unpanicky, patiently stories told, on the Television, on the Internet, on the Radio. As we see Future Life unfurl and slowly take root.