“10 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. 7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. 13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.” (2 Co 10:1–18 ESV)

Coming up in the midst of the Blase, the Malaise, the Lazy or Pugnacious status quo: to stay Sharp is to lean heavily in on a few things “around here”, really distinguishing in the mind “friend” versus “foe”, and not somehow commingling, ameliorating, seeing as somewhat all equal playing field.

We fight the blase and status quo with a stark sense—you can Feel the energy, the juice, the fighting spirit in His peoples—of alarm and action and duty and purpose. We even risk Betraying our maker: “There was something electrifying about him, about her…”. We are those agents of a Crown who have earned some modicum or brand of Smooth Sailing just a bit: our truth claims, we can lean in on, we can go Modal, Purposeful, Evangelistic. Because ninety-five percent of our Intake is Confused Mess and Devilish Hex, Discord, Denials of Christ, fascination with an undereradicated Evolved laziness or Faultline: evolution ain’t all peaches and cream. Society errs, life really can be so Difficult; the sense straight out of Hebrew Scriptures—Ecclesiastes, in particular—that all our toil under the sun comes to nothing, since somehow who didn’t thus toil is the heir.

To stay Creme, creme de la creme and Focused: is to dare speak Into the Shadowland, into the Hex and Compromised Scenario. Our operational intelligence, situational awareness, is rankling the status quo, but smooth sailing ahead, we cut right through the Thick lugubrious Spirit in the air, spirit on the ground, spirit in All Things we Do See: and stark Judgments already bygones and from a past season or day. We have earned a continuation, but we on some fronts were already Judged. As shrill, unworthy, crying wolf, fussing over Briefings and Emails and heightened Alert realities.

We do not ease into a Status known as Militant, Intelligence, Operationally and Situationally Aware: rather, we lean on each pillar Heavily when the time has come that our self image has become more Respectable. Intelligence work, spiritual work, fighting for the Man Upstairs, this is known to have driven some souls Crazy: because of the weird inability ever quite to Come in from the Cold, the self-shadowing mirroring back and forth, self-analytical, no, outwardly analytical, analytical towards what is “Out There”, and Sanity around this being—do, soldier, lean in on the Drill Master, the Uniform, the Flag—ours to Own and Operate Within.

The healing outfit, the Church-Planting outfit, the strange Peace of those gestated on Scripture, heirs of Wisdom found therein: this is a place to count as “Friend” not “Foe”. We know that a church or healer is Angular and Pugnacious, Fighting and Decisive. But we do not concede to the wishy-washy Malaise, rather we are Bold to fight on behalf of said Angular Decision Made. To be men and women “of the Good Book”.