“50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55  “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:50-58 ESV)

Christianity is made by its adherents, who learned the way of truth and life on a mother’s or father’s knee and then fill in the gaps to make it real via testimony. Even as all the world changes on all sides, the rush of wind, the gurgling of water, the Christian marvels a bit and holds down the fort, the center, the sense of Being. Because everything now looks different; today I must reinvent anew, who I am, my sources of composure, of certainty, of confidence. My expectations and tomorrow-hopes.

The Christian therefore is bound to a perennial cruciform Mandate, Discipline, the “Wham” of a life carefree in regards to ambition and accomplishment, and die-hard around becoming the meek, the chastened, the groggy-eyed Plain Dealer: doctor has hit hard, spirit has raised up mightily. We deal plainly because of a father’s love, a mother’s love, a sister’s- or brother’s-in-faith love.

That is, to soldier under the banner Christ is to understand high and low, heaven and hell, that the climate it is a-warming, and the former things pass away: not all will die, but all will be changed, in a blink, in the twinkling of the eye. And to whom do we look for our rock-solid confidence? When pulpit and friend, family and teacher, have failed us, or met us with the stark confused gaze of “They’ve been here…”? Our confidence is just that: confidence, forged in the steely furnace, ours to reiterate, having mouthed the Creed, that we shall lean on crutches only for a time, but no more, and shall have a Peace and Composure that originates in the Self, to vouch for us and carry the day.

To originate in the self means to originate in the Other: we know ourself via His Incarnation, His becoming human just like us, so that we can pray solemn vespers of sane and cool thoughts, waiting for the Spirit who originates in said ice-cool waters, to compose us and form us, to reward us because if He faced death squarely, we, too, parry long into the night, tarry long into the season: ours is the Hope and ours is the constantly-reshaping die-hard reaction to a world gone mad and center lost and nothing holding together except what God has earned on our behalf, on His Cross.

We are confident and composed because we found Mission Central, the Gamesmanship, the brilliant Buoyancy, of a religion once-upon-a-time taught us and now our Mandate to Make It True. We are truth and discovery for having this confidence in us, that Christ has died for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, that we might stare down that old enemy Death. When we have gone crazy and half-mad, the calm warm thoughts of His walk, of His mandate to teach and heal, of His reliance on a Father Above: these ready us like a tuning fork, to be salt and light, patience and proactivity, in the Name of Resurrection Strength.