“2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” (2 Pe 2:1–10 ESV)

The proverbial calling card: the spirituality of those let’s face it who are gone Corrupted, gone Criminal, gone Pained Existence, this is an Invite to install a New Headship, Jesus the Christ, Lord of our lives. In Classic Form the calling card is simple, basic, without much overhead. In Classic Form the spirituality is lossy, forged in affliction, playing a mellow tune as the city streets flash by and it rains.

What this has to do with our Present Distress is that Christian Soldiering plays no favorites, is severe and stark with its own Kind, presents its people as a malleable and well-handled, forged, convicted, and shaped Sacrifice. Sacrifice as in Gift, unto the Holy One called Jesus the Christ. Sacrifice as in no clutchy or accumulating tendencies. We go lean in order the better to field a harvest on the Flipside, come Tomorrow.

Relativity has something to teach insofar as a Big Bully in the room appears and suddenly mutual differences are a small thing. A Goliath appears, and suddenly differences of worship style or creed are a small thing. More, those Exalted Ones whose backoffice and warroom is Well Equipped, Fashionably Aware and Curated, breathing a heave-ho, inhaling trials, exhaling victories, these Exalted Ones are not sadly fighting against a near traveler, but against those whose lives have gone banal and whose style is wanting. Who have long since lost the carefully curated years of the youngster’s education, who think it a joking matter to assign diplomas and make “A Child Shall Lead Them” into a strange abused variant, a child shall bomb them and make decisions really requiring some proper Education to happen first and foremost in their lives.

Because it is a strange yet mutual brand of Reciprocal Love the players and participants Exchange, not to bomb each other to smithereens but to marvel: sometimes that Goliath in the room is God-sent, and other times some exciting Business Proposition distracts us from the paranoid and reflexive responses. We go Excitement-Factor on the wild new frontiers of Networking and a social cohesion bearing more fruit than plain money or financial shuttlecocks batted around.

We design our Mission as a Church Family in full Awareness and Intent to be a Global Powerhouse, to be a Geopolitical Gambit and Player. Because strange days, and there is no means to dial nine-one-one to report a crime in progress. Strange days and Threat dominates over Largesse and Societal Freedoms. Strange days and resistance to a fellow’s or gal’s Supremacy and Lift becomes our fussy norm. We normalize the resistance to actual Christ-like Elation and Elevation: a new Prophet, Priest, or King or Queen. Sure, we wish a bit for our mentees and friends, but that much? It boggles the mind.

The portal is newly Available and the Actors are primed and ready, because sometimes social fabric “just works”: to set up an Outpost, a Listening Station or Meeting Room, life is a strange gambit and for some everything they touch turns to money, a gambit of subtle Coming Togethers and Backroom Dialogs over a Coke or Pepsi.

The reciprocal Love begs and prays and beseeches All Things Holy to Educate and Calm and Inspire and Overwhelm sin and Satan with Mutual Togetherness around Goliath, Mutual Togetherness around the child weaned, weaned but first urgently nursed especially if Mom has gone AWOL. This much, this parable, all humanists allow. Of the nursing infant and of Ma and Pa sharing in the duties of bouncing on the knee. To meet a younger generation, a younger form of the self, one Gaining an Education and indeed to some measures really better than we were at their age, more sharp to negotiate, more inspired and God-fearing, more Informed and Intel-Laden around the world we live in… these things spell Progress and Saving Humankind, even, if that isn’t too great a Burden.

We Save, and we allot our Time to new career paths or old paths Rethought. We Save, and blip the radar with an installation, impregnation, bomb blast of ripple effects most Broad, that “Oh sure, we know so-and-so” becomes a strange Evocation where we model each other’s presence and Learn to Dialog and to Vibe Off Of, and though they beg and torment and torture the linguistic elements out of our men, out of our women, we learn to Stare not Askance into each other’s kindly visages and eyes, to make the deal, to Celebrate the Brotherhood, Sisterhood, to uncheat and undiabolically reason, together reasoning because nevermind the threat as implied, mind the Potential as Unlocked, backrooms and ten folding chairs and living rooms and all that.