“13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love. 15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— 16 be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. 17 I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, 18 for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.” (1 Cor 16:13-18 ESV)

Preserving the gauntlet, persevering through the noted opposition, the ambush, the raging fires, the Christian bears in her or his heart that By and Large the justice seat of the world is going to overlook sensitivity, the heart’s state, preaching, the gauntlet. By and large, the common perception will Forget the very lifeblood that has carried society and Church thus far. By and large, the world’s machinery will go cruise control except that an Intervening Expedient and Accelerant called Sensitive Poignancy, called Unction, called Wrestled Truths, called Gleanings and Words from the Well, will eventually, on some timeframe even one eternal in length, catch the trade winds, spell the Mind’s Eye of community and school and workplace and gathering place alike.

More, the potential for Impact, for impact Crater and Raging Accelerant of brush fire Divine, this only is held in Trust by God’s Spirit, the God who has a Plan nevermind the naysaying and doubts. “Why doesn’t God just ‘do something’?” People ask why their own judgment day isn’t hastened, in the economic interest of forward progress. What they fail to see, and what they overlook, is that to obsess about “You” for a day, is a day’s labor, and for now just perhaps the battle is abroad, is elsewhere, is not about “You” at all! More, there is divine Mystery, and pundits and experts alike try to quantify how much this social metric or that society rubric weighs against Eternal Militant Tools, Bombs and Guns and Hand Grenades of the Spirit, whereby, in the careful employ of such, entire bastions of Reality shift overnight. But “You” already understood this…?

“You”: the question is simply one of Hope, that sufficient boots on the ground be available to invest that day of labor around studying and putting cautionary tape around one entity in society or another, that sufficient boots on the ground will be available to manage the fallout, of massive corporate-levels of failure not be uncontrolled. That plain Faith: God is the one at work, not us, and we His people are going to be self-contrite, reflective, pensive, and will have Learned Something all things told. By the tempest insofar as it is held in a teacup, not everywhere but Localized, insofar as at least we do Know who the key players are, and that being a gift, a lightning rod or two, someone to study and point to, to love and pray for, to really attempt to “Tempt”—if that isn’t too cynical a word for our strategem—into joining Cause because it’s so sexy and fun the gallantry we get up to!

The life experience, that the “dweeb” being a little too homely and writing a letter home to mom, is still perhaps of richer stock and more Background than we ourselves… this is anathema to our pride, horrifies our prowess, apes our better instincts. The “dweeb” calling up pa on the phone to thank him for the lessons at his feet as a youngster, is perhaps of hidden Talents hopefully—hope against hope—spotted by some Talent Scout on High, God the Father and in general God the Father’s front office, His arms and ligaments, His group-mind and individually-responsible entourage. We are both thinking Together, and we are little Luminaries each ourselves.