2023-06-16 A Meditation on Being Meticulous

“19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. 25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” (Php 2:19–30 ESV)

Lean, mean, the soldier is kept hungry. Playing with the big kids, the soldier is inducted, unashamed, meticulous, anointed: blessed from above. To be younger brother or sister unto a new generation’s strange new brand of fight. All this is to bless those who have gone before us, and to know the shops and delis, the parks and playgrounds, the schools and employment: this is ours to own and ours to perform honorariums via and through.

We honor those brothers and sisters who have gone before us. They bore the heat of day. It is our call to go a step beyond. To be meticulous and perfect, on some gifted level. Gifted from above, we are loudly imputed with trust. We are invested in, upon a level of fondness from On High. Fond for us the kid. Fond for us the representative, the advocate, the plaintive meticulous ones.

Knowing transgression speaks deep to the heart; knowing an orchestrated work of rebellion, spelt out, is perhaps something that differentiates us. We were those eager to rebel. We were those eager to transgress. We found the day’s quiet in the huddled gatherings and rebellious endeavors. We broke the rules, and in that breakage received blessing. Blessing for outing the cantankerous parent. Blessing for annulling the annoying and peppy father or mother. Blessing for showing allegiance no longer to law enforcement and those fussy ones we deem to be frustrated. With life. With career. With lack of respect from the youth. So it all worked together to build up one another in furtive families of divorce and absent parents. In street corners of important greetings and fist bumps or “dap”. All those ways we learnt not of what untold avenues shall one day open up for the loyal son or daughter, but rather of a here and now, one day to see parents truly a blessing along with older siblings, for their faith. God shall provide. God shall teach. God shall preserve from deeper sins.