2025-03-19 A Meditation on Hanging in There

“5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” (Rom 10:5-13 ESV)

The operative, the question: hang on a little longer, there, little bro, sis. We act as those embedded, as those Influential and not easily implicated in cultural malaise, groupthink, and the lemmings’ walk to the cliff. We are Certain of this, that Love made its imprint on our heart, that Christ made His resting place in our routines, that Peace made its excited and contagious way into our soul. What we do, we do as Peacemakers, operatives of a shy but Certain Crown. Shy, the Lord the Son, of evil ways, and bold, the Lord the Son, of influential ways, healing ways, ways needing no apology.

Do we, after all, know this Peacemaker named Christ? Are we focused enough on His Will? Have we internalized enough Scripture to claim some brand of submission… submission to… something? Yet we are not boorish about submission, rather excited about parallel journeys and walks in lockstep with our Lord. We are excited, after all: the lit up Mind, the encouraged Way, the wayward or promiscuous Influence: today, is our day in the sun! Today is the operative seeding Something, that Christ gave His own meek, shy, but Courageous, walk to a Cross for.

As the general public begins to learn of an Era’s memorabilia, the soldier has occasion to party up or celebrate the Phase One, the operative seeding, the persistence around Doctrine: ninety-nine percent of what passes for “Church” is on a faulty basis, theologically-speaking. Perhaps? In any event, we are bold as Theologians when they ask for more “Good works”, and bold as laborers, when we’ve discharged our theological impetus.

Therefore the hour or the fifteen minutes of centering Prayer: if we can thus afford Today to face Him, minus fright it will upset the apple cart. Some are in such compromised positions that, to face up to Truth might be too wearying. Might fall flat. Might lead immediately to Confrontation and War. Yet for these we pray, and speak in parables. For these we tell of a Christ non-combatant, at least, a Christ no threat to their persecutor… in and of Himself. A Christ—let me tell you a story—who learned to live Religiously via Peacemaking and Healing, no ornery concern: is He indeed a Good Jew? Does He tithe and actually Believe in anything, after all?

Christian deeds—the “Good Jew” or “Good Image-bearer”—are the accidental “Evidence” of faith, since we can neither insist upon nor dumb down the so-called simple request to Believe. But these deeds, this murmur or excitement in the Hour—some way out in front of the pack, yet calm and composed, militant and efficacious—are deeds accidental, afforded simply on the back of a Soul cleaned and set free. A soul that… does it “Believe” anything? Where is the evidence? It is in the give-and-take, in the unwitting gestures of Goodness, in the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, in the Accidental encouragement of the Saints, in the pained-at-times Emblematic Presence in the broader community.

The question, the operative’s Score: we arrive back at the barracks heads hung low in trauma or in confrontation with disbelief. We need to recharge. We are all beset in every way. We gave it our all. We taught. We influenced. We used some Prophetic Gift to Bless others, recalling the Power of any One Experience with love.