“2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Alive in Christ 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Col 2 ESV)

Machinations meet buoyancy, the soldier’s Lifeblood enhanced in the field by gladsome, gregarious, good news and gumption. The soldier’s Lifeblood somehow today Means Something, some reason why the Hour is for reasoned joy to behold and to meet up. That is, we can have all the world at our fingertips, yet have it all go dull, go limpid, go abstract and theoretical, non-engaged, non-buoyant, non-Beheld as to being His Glory.

Therefore we wean ourselves off the survivalism as prescribed by Evolutionary Theory, and on to a Christ-Centered, Cruciform, ponder-your-sins-and-Live determination to Thrive and to live post-dying. Dying daily, the aging loved ones, the astonishing grown-man, grown-woman status of the younger generation (that dates us), these things are Nothing without Owned and Persistent goodsome, availed tidings. Tidings of Joy, of Peace, of Together-Mindset.

Because He is One through whom we can live Vicariously, to meet the season in glad tidings that we, too, lay down our lives for the brethren and sistren. That we, too, live for the Day, not planning our defense in advance, but living for the Now… call that a luxury, thus no longer to Worry? Call it Christ’s Kingdom on earth.

Then to the pockets of strife breaking out, the distant wars now “Felt” on the homefront; we are game for the hour, to proclaim Already Strife ourselves, Already War in and of our own comport and demeanor. We have the demeanor of Evangelists around the Cause, we can pick up the Fight Today, not when the enemy decides, but Today: to share the Good News of a Healing, Beloved, Imputing, Intervening, Christ Figure.

Christ lived for us, and died For Us. In this News we have Peace and Substantial Reaffirmation: your sins for His blood. Delight, O Man, O Woman, in your Confessional, because it spells Mirth and overwhelming odds defeated. No, we are not coaxing you to concede some Point of Sinfulness in order later to plunder it like our own personal pot of gold at rainbow’s end. We are sincere in Wishing you Good Tidings, and Forgiveness, the “I resolve to forget the incident” being germane and tear-inducing words heard.

That is, our “accountability” means that the Bishop of our Souls accounts all things in the ledger-book, in order that Discipline may abruptly Stop the gossip, the sin of hearsay, the eagerness to see others Fail. We ourselves, peruse and perambulate around the Sensitive Matters precisely because we need more than ostentatious denial, we need Utter Reminder of the gladsome flipside: we of all people were the Saints, in this one incident, at least. And as Saints, as those Forgiven, we can lamp High and Glorified on His Behalf.

The soldier prays for the Courage for various Endeavors, one being his or her fast from foods (trim up a little, perhaps), or anything else… studying of Scripture, resolutions to be better people, honest self-appraisal… yet in this “anything else” there is also just the Receptivity and Reactive Thought, of souls Already Sanctified, Glorified, Innately-Determined, Automatically-Dutiful, Resolutely-Healed. We live into a Tomorrow, call it a Tomorrow War, already upon us as Heaven’s most dutiful servants. Who know bishop’s discipleship, discipline, as our Ticket to Ride: thank you, fathers most Holy, mothers most Holy, that you took me to “that place”: of sane self-assessment, so as not to wallow in navel-gazing, but to ready ourselves and comment in preaching, on the Frontline of War. You were only discipled in Love, in the interest of the more Prepared of your body and frame and soul, for your servant-duty in War. On the frontlines. In the trenches. At the church-gathering. On the city scene. At the rural gathering. In the suburban meetups. And in this Preparedness we rightly do take one another’s sins upon ourselves. With no thought of reward beyond the one He already earned for us: eternal life.