“10 Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field. 2  For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. 3  “My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. 4  From him shall come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler—all of them together. 5  They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the Lord is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses.” (Zec 10:1–5 ESV)

Amidst the high winds of Time, error-averse, trauma-healed, goodness-prone, we are clutched, we clutch, in some Divine Confidence, Heavenly Vote, Superior Invocation that mettle triumphs over adversity, that for all our soft zones and wounded areas, even these begin to hear Intoned: “Come up here!” (Rev 4:1; etc). Come up, and Realize the flashes of Decisions made, the live ammo indeed driving the occasional panic attack, but the Live Ammo also instructive, causing us to reflect, that indeed we are Voted On to the island, onto the Cabal, onto the Mission Control Room.

Because perhaps, because “We are everywhere”, the Reality of operational message and intel appearing on a street corner, always questioning the hack attack, the phishing or false credentials or false badge of the enemy, paranoid no longer but saying to self, “entirely plausible, this accidental meet-up, no need… patience, my soul… no need to deny a friend of yesteryear”.

No need to Deny a God Above, in the form of Man, a Lord Above, and His sly and Invested—top dollar insofar as my Son, my Daughter, learn to think and receive subliminally, spiritually, suggestibly and Evocatively of a Higher Spirit who—by mathematical induction—if these smaller spiritual messages are Real, well so-too the Higher Ones.

Indeed, the high winds and we go Bold to state, God the Father has the mettle and influence therein, within the high whirlwinds, to Install and Initiate, to make Novitiate and Beloved, any He chooses. He chose His Son, Christ to some, Crucified to All, bearer of a message of Guilty-As-Charged to so many. We learnt from our fellows and brothers or sisters the Priests, as always to go the route of Self-Infamy, of Repentance, of “what were you thinking”, only too we go the route of Headstrong, Already Forgiven, quizzically discerning, hey, a little competition around here or rather a little Murderous Animosity around here?

Because we all must confess to being simply Human, no superheroes quite in All Manner, and when imputed to be God-like, especially then, reverse psychology or rather the warmth of Blessedness, and we are first to point out that we Aren’t Superhuman. But too, when attributed as to being Sinless Altogether by Christ’s Blood, well this enables us to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus. When finger-pointed and accused, well then these sins… who can long survive when even your own dearest kin seem no longer to vote in you? Praise God for mothers and fathers, then, for sisters and brothers, then, for extended family, then. For friends.

We are everywhere, is a comment on the Forged Innocence and Quiet of all of God’s children, who are left to see only a brief handful of “pings”, a few innocent “glances” our way, life without undue Pressure yet internally the weight of the world… and we bear this Burden with kumbayah moments throughout our days and weeks and months and years, and with Insightful moments through the same. Yes, we may agree, I mustn’t break out of the Basic Training: no verbal mutterings, no unnecessary internet searches, no querying after old friends (don’t give up the names!). Why? Because of the reality of One Word. One Keyword that radios home, here is the crux of today’s matter. Or, radios home, so-and-so is really the linchpin, though gone silent some twenty or thirty years. Someone is always listening, potentially. And that someone… could be friend, could be foe, could be Aggregate of Both, could cause confidence in us to be lost, could cause suspicions to be cast.

Because we have this strange Facet of being Cast Headlong into high seas, where our logical or mathematical models, they need New Logic to understand: you will be seen by streetside camera and monitored, you will be in Hell’s courtyard of treason and betrayals; why, if you are our God and can protect such-and-so, can you not prevent the Enemy from installing a video camera on High Street, Centre Street, Century Plaza, etc.?

That leads to our Confidence in Man, Woman As Created: Garden of God’s design, that no basic training is paranoid or cynical, rather that we simply have Nothing to Hide, as far as our deepest Person and Motives. Let them watch! Let them listen! Let them murmur rumors and such! Let them interview!

God’s people will run the race set before them, deeply invoking the community’s safety nets or rather in Faith God will provide. Our walls as set up according to notions of Holy Fast, these are called upon to End the Fast and trust God will heal notwithstanding the mid-morning sugar-rush or late afternoon carb loading. Our lustful memories or unwelcome dreams, these we need friends and colleagues in the faith at times to Help Us see ourselves as forgiven, as Good Folk, as all those things that we confess time comes we simply cave in and fail, were it not for God’s merciful High Priest and Shepherd, Guardian of our soul. And our Reality, home life versus community life… these juxtapose and meld and intake and exhale: we are Healed, and Invited to live into our own skin as Already Made New, yet does Original Sin remain? It does, and the Correctives do require some looking the other way, perhaps, once in a dozen or two years? Or daily? None of us would long stand in the column called Sanctified, if all our deeds and thoughts were measured and tallied up. But when treated as One of the Brotherhood, Sisterhood, hey, that’s where healing begins, that’s the occasion not to pad our own resume but rather to invest in a brotherly or sisterly Moment of Sympathy and Coming Together.

To repent, it is a daring and baldfaced proposition, because in truth it severs us from childhood and enters us upon Manhood, Womanhood, the better Educated by the experience: our sins then almost—almost—become our Boast. They caused, though were not the reason, our Higher Up calling and Sanctification as Begun. The Reason was His Perfection through the wilderness temptations, through the ministry on earth, through the ministry leading via the Cross and Resurrection, to the Clouds. War then wages around just Who is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed around here for the Coming Onslaught worse than simple war, of “mountains fall on us”, of skies darkened and an enemy of no mortal design. Therefore perhaps a good prayer is to thank the Lord for the enemies He has given us, that on some level we can come together as Human and error-prone yes, but as Human and God-designed. To humble the callous, to heal the penitent, to embolden the thoughtful and the timid. So we thank God, for the phone calls—do you have a red phone somewhere on your desk?—not made, but in theory possible. 

The phone calls where to say, “Thank you” is just as important as to bark threats or raise in theory the Impossible. See a film, and the recurring motif is ancient armies meeting in the open field with a hail of arrows in the sky. Life is brutal, war is harsh, and it does the soul good to be reminded, our fast, our lack of the sugar-rush even as one point not to obsess over, is under severe attack, and we must at times literally fall into the arms of the unfasted. We must Trust God to walk with us through the valley in our curmudgeonly estate we’d never choose. Our walls as erected, these must come down, and the Word as Preached, Heard, must inform and prepare our hearts for the darkened skies and for the racing onslaught of enemy fire: “Be unhealed, be injured, be immoral, be judged,” they clamor, but we know better.