“22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. 24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, 25 it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.” 30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33 And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.” (Acts 15:22-35 ESV)

Spiritual warfare includes dual extremes of excitement slash boredom, and the would-be prayer warrior, would-be saint, would-be effector of change in the sad world: she or he prays through thoughts too wonderful to bear, alongside the haunting fear that all the visions, all the optimism, all the Tomorrow-Togetherness will go stale. Will go boring.

And then to the intimation, that all of us need some bedrock barebones mechanics of the Soul to operate upon: some thoughts are indeed too wonderful for us. We face astonishing Reality, and instead of claiming prerogative, we go humble, we go modest, we plead for some Means to effect such change or such alliance or such mystery-work that doesn’t tax our better qualifications too much: all we are, is plain to see; and were we Responsible for every unsent missive, every unconjoined alliance, every unspelt Notice, we of all people would be most to be pitied.

For it is the soldier’s waking Reality to be of a brand boisterous and legendary, to dream with the big stars and sleep with the quieter ones alongside dreamland. It is the soldier’s Cause to believe in an eternity on the other side of the needle called life and death, on the other side of the Dialog, the Breath of Fresh Air, the As For Me and My House, we shall serve the Lord.

It is the pundit’s waking reality to manifest insane what-if’s via tempered, trained or disciplined Appropriate Guise, Guile that drops kerplunk into the equation to lend Intrigue and Personability to the plain facts. Facts of the matter cogent and Seen, invited and Dialogued-with in the Spirit, in the Conscious hours-long waking dreamland.

And then do we tire? Will it all go flat, all stale, all too hot to handle? Nonsense, we adjure: the thoughts, they titillate and Inform our better angels, unto a circumscribed Boundary Line wherein expertise is ours to boast in. We are expert in the One Man’s War, the Army of One, the vague associations each ministered to, by constrained talk and delimited speech.

Then on to the prophet and apostle’s word: that some are circumscribed, circumcised in the flesh, and others are not but the latter no less Holy and Faithful, Faith-Filled. What we learn of life via our baptismal vows, these fasts, these circumcised Dalliances, they inject Wisdom of the Ages into a frame needful of Style and Fashion. They inject some boasted-over talking points. They inject some Character-On-Display. So we attune to those who are of the “Jewish” tradition, the “People of the Book” tradition, whilst seeing the party-line in such Pentecostal, Spirit-Led, Grace-Filled self-expression most divine. Most wasted, too, it can seem: God is patient, and doesn’t do anything in a void, without reason, minus tempering the trials with peace, minus enabling the good deeds with humble Witnessing power, minus feeding the long-suffering Saints of the land.