2023-01-26 A Meditation on Basic Warfare of a Spiritual Variety
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Php 3:8 ESV)
People band together in an instant, society changes, deep advances are made while lesser fears are allayed. The home base is some blanket of coexistence between two worlds, the world that the soldier dreams of and fights for, and the stark facts on the ground, explosions overhead, a clever devil who responds to courage with laziness and banality. Who responds to largesse with nitpicking over who in the company is, after all, a “Christian”. Who responds to healthsome advance with any manner of clasping, gripping what the devil fears to lose in material terms. For the devil has trouble taking a step of faith, saying the teary goodbyes, advancing in Gospel form, Gospel arrangement, Gospel platoon. The devil wants to hold on, not out of sanity, but in an insane romp. Insane, because if truth were told, the Christian simply stated has a gentler and beauteous inheritance.
People recognize the quietude and busyness of the strong yet simple gathering. People look back on pleasant times with an eye to a forward hope. Yet we can demure. We can hesitate, knowing the spirit of the air in the gathering, the spirit almost able to be cut with a knife, so heavy is it, the spirit of the uncourageous and falsely meek. For our penury and modesty of purpose is not quite what guarantees our salvation. Yes, we are doing the Lord’s work in praying for our neighbor, but also we are called to be the Lord’s son or daughter, to lance forth encouraged and brave, courageous and daring, knowing the Lord Resurrects the penitent; the lowballing spirit has good intention, namely, to pray for others and to bless, but is called to more: to testify in season and live into the chattering cloud of witnesses, of which we are a member.
A member knit backwards and forwards into the great company. A member organic and tied to her or his near spirit of neighbor or friend. So we snap out of it and remember the gladsome tidings of a surpassing worth. We remember we too once were without the Scriptures and without Christ, only God—true to His predestinating call—had designs to redeem and reverse each and every deed done in the flesh, both sin and righteousness. In our penitential frame, perhaps some near person is healed of their own blockade and lugubrious totality by our testimony; all that they needed was one call to repent, one sin to address, one courageous willingness to be that one person who steps up when the waters are stirred up (Jn 5:7). For even a cynic can see, the potential for a few early risers, a few souls, to beat others to that punchline: I repented while it was still fashionable; I repented while it still earned dollars on the penny for the congregation’s witness. Yet we are not cynical, but rather are Christian, and we believe all make their peace with God in His good timing, and do have true debts alongside true mercies.