“3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:3-17 ESV)

Coached to go large, funny aspects of the soldier’s make reverberate, spelling certain Denial of the prize if we don’t put aside the sin of self-pity or lack of imagination. God has a plan for us, wider than the framework we allot ourselves, broader than the fold we envision for ourselves, more succinct than the humorless posturing we teach ourselves.

Underground networks, the desire to put aside monastic disciplines and be inducted into Actionable Plans, in actionable intelligence, in actionable frontline thrust, this desire is strangely wed to the monastic, because who would have thought, in the middling terrains of life some Spark called Genius has remarked upon, lifted up, a few Souls ‘round here. 

We therefore plan in light of Christ’s perambulatory Singleton movements: no, not singleton but part of a vast tapestry of people of good will who ensured the plan went off without a hitch. Some voting with their whispered vote, some with their refusal to Judge, to Gauge, to Incriminate… for who, if not Him and Him alone, can stand up against the withering hours of Judgment. “Crazy talk.” “Wildly inappropriate speech.” “Living on a furtive edge.” It bears repeating: we kill Christ, in the final Encounter and only then, after our passions are demonstrated on the public action block, are we Convicted by God the Father’s will: to raise the son from death.

The actionable intelligence, then, creates strange Militaristic endeavors, everything almost too clever or provocative, too whispered and sublime, too planned and counterpoint. Our endeavors… all are potentially some brand of Draw, or some brand of False Front, Good Cop, Bad Cop, some clever ruse. Yet as Christ’s followers we do not Bore of the Heartfelt, the Worn Heart on the Sleeve, of just how far and broadly we can go in the good name of Principled Endeavor. That we play our chess game, play our hand of cards, in Sincerity and pugnacious irked and irksome Composure, we are irked and we are frustrated, that our deeds of Service are not seen as more, as a New City to own, as new friends Sublime, New Testament Friends and more.

Leave it to the chess-masters to gather wondrous Outlay. Leave it to the group-mind, hive-think, to come up with ingenious denouement and revelation. Of our hand. Of our fighting posture. Of our underappreciated Fact: we can be strong, right? We can be rather stronger than first thought. Yet again, as Christians, our enemy is just as much to be prayed for. Because their insanity, this will harm the entire community. Their lack of respect for their alternate, for their counterpoint, this will give a false courage most ruinous. Their literally suicidal outlay, this will wrap up an entire victimized public. 

To go Principled and Undesigned, this is the Christian’s ruse: heart on sleeve, letting our yes be yes and our no be no, for anything else comes from the devil. Letting our talk be spirit-led rather than coolly designed or cynically serpentine: wise as serpents, innocent as doves notwithstanding, our wisdom plays second fiddle to our plain Speech: to therapist and enemy’s officer themselves, we talk most truthfully because it isn’t lists of names or catalogs of wild-eyed sins that form our center of being, but rather we can in all serpentine wisdom talk Directly from what is front and center, faith in Him, belief in a Judgment Day but therein belief in a Mercy Seat. We will prevail. We will see God’s patient, at times militaristic but patient, plans unfold. And it is no boring clockwork universe, either, but rather we are Invited to make solemn decisions, to coach ourselves not to self-hate around a misstep (who, indeed, if our misstep is directed towards, we remind ourselves: some friends and acquaintances we think of as “Grace” and some as “Law”; those of Grace, we laugh and do not worry about the wrong-minded email, but those of Law… nothing we do can be right). 

The day is sufficient for the worries of the soldier, strong for the composed Trials and Warring Maneuvers. The soldier is Stronger than anticipated, yet still malleable and able to be hurt: but her or his Hurt… this is simply reminder, that the War beckons a little more strongly than any measured self-assessment or personal Judgment of our souls. The war, indeed, it gives us Realization as to why God the Father loved on us initially, because He lives in the halls of bellum, and literally does not fault us for half-crazed actions: maybe, O soldier, your half-crazed declarations of war and peace were just the ticket, in this half-cocked world we live in. In this time of trials. In this forged Peaceful Intent.