“19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor 9:19-27 ESV)

Spirit is real, and we dwell in what we expect. Weird rebellions, to be found outside the Church’s (one true Church’s) grace, is to concede with no reward therein, to a Blasphemy and a Denial. Yet beleaguered on either side, the church as Gathered does reach in with weird fantastical and heretical, weird Pageantry, Pagan Intrusions and hands-laying. Yet to Deny: to scream foul, this elevated the would-be Pilgrim’s task to the Big Lights, the Shining Ones, the Stratosphere Divine: come Judgment Day, God’s humorous mockery of all Human Pride, will shine through the Saint and all the more humble, if all the more Save.

To Captivate, with words, with a gentle Safeguarding Perimeter or pat on the back sincere, pat on the back You Belong Here, pat on the back Hear, O would-be Saint, of the Living Son’s love for you. Hear, flee not the circumference and perimeter, but Hear, that strange Fascinations and Fashions of Prayer, these can be unobtrusive, a Word in season to a soul beleaguered, just the Remedy, because it isn’t lugubrious or ritualistic in the wrong way. It is come-what-may, come and go at will, Hear… that Christ loves You the sovereign Created One. Christ plans a Course of Action for You, the sovereign beloved son or daughter. Christ… to the Evangelist, as for the Evangelist… she or he is first to pass over any claims to the flesh or to a tithe spiritual or material; he or she is Not liminally attracted by any lust or Caprice, any Domineering or otherwise: no, you know this Saint by his or her—yes, tested, but passing with flying colors—dull disinterest in the sins of Ambition and of the Flesh.

Eye-to-eye, gazing into each Other’s line of sight, we do a dance not macabre but deadly and yet beautiful, as the perigee of War lines up high in the stratosphere: we are locked in and loaded, eye-to-eye with our Enemy if he or she is one we Know, formerly or still as a Friend, yet the battle lines loaded and steaming up, the ranks closing all around, people going two, three degrees of separation from the Assassin or the Perimeter Storming crew that starts all the outward Conflict. We all know someone who knows someone…

The battle lines are forming around a Philosophy, nay a Theology, of Man’s place in the world, rightly Humble, yet rightly Bold to assert Christ’s Victory laps and missionary excursions. Christ has Won, in a strange mantra and solemn dance of the mind, surrounding His crucifixion and His Resurrection: no, we are a bit shaken by the canon of Theology, “He died for our sins, repent and believe…”: is that even what the Bible says, other than that He was victorious over sin? Rather, are our theologians rightly Contrite, that sin dwells in every heart and under every canopy? Only we pray, that this Theological Rectitude will in fact bear fruit, as we go forth boldly and minus sinister spirit or capricious gestalt, we go forth because we are Dying to Know Him. We are Risk-Taking because He loves us. We are emboldened and like flickers in the night season, lighting up what one life can light up, with deep faith it is a flame that catches the candles found worldwide.