“31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”” (John 8:31-38 ESV)

Hero impulse and ratcheted up legitimacy of the soldier’s quilt, his or her guild, his or her absence of retreat. We do not retreat, though in milder days life seems to pan on endlessly; this day, echo location and the Spirit is all around us, God above me, God beside me, God beneath me. God speaks when we have gone mute. God of a sudden draws forth our limited Frame: not endless, not monotonous, not sick days and days of restful catching up, but Forward because Today the equation is met, somewhere in the air, somewhere in the guild, somewhere in the life’s prognosis.

Prognosis of sudden duty that Calls: today, if you are ready, the music of the spheres, the Heavenly Spirit shall sing hymns that ricochet, that bombard, that magnificently Honor the King. And we… absent of good deeds, take the day to be situated—not to be ourselves the hero—in Christ’s compassion, His Cross, His Contribution sublime. Today, the endgame suddenly comes into focus… and then retreats, because after all we live on. Having done that deed that is stark; having reflected on Christ’s own pact with death, His arrival in Jerusalem, His willingness—but not eagerness—to self immolate. Our outlay is no different, sudden genius of mind and soul that ratchets up the historical timeline, tomorrow’s prognosis, we the animals in the rambunctious Cage ready and willing to go His Way.

Because Christ is Eternity to the ears and Sublime Patience to the soul. He speaks whilst we sit back and marvel. He intones while we sit back and think heavenly thoughts. He is Always and Ever ready, working, busy about the Master’s business, the business of the other two-thirds of the Trinity. To whom our Christ submits, and that in itself being gospel enough for the day. That God is busy, God is hero driven, God is intermagisterial contribution and fiduciary Duty unto the guild, unto the owned Spirit, unto our human sense of astonishment: that precisely as we backed off the claims to be self-originating, He stepped in and gave us the Hero Move. Gave us, because we had stopped relying on ourselves. Gave us, because the deed was already writ in stone by His Son. Gave us, because we were willing to go near to the dying man’s epigraph.

The curtains, then, destined one day to fall on this life, and the applause… the next life to usher in. We are soldiers for a commander-in-chief who has known the teamwork education as to trust falls, as to public icon levels of interrelational reliance on each other: we go hard, so that we can find rest. Our rest, it trusts our mates and gals to pick up where we go wilted, go tired, go sickly. Only no sickness has taken over us: we are still Listening, for His music of the spheres, because He has preserved His people, to know both Belonging, as in doing good, and Witnessing, as in watching a master at arms in His element, at His helm, about His dance and celebratory Jaunt.

He celebrates; we see the meekness of anything we ourselves might contribute. He goes angular and rogue towards evil; we see the patient Love for even our own little impact made. He goes magnificent, flaunting style and an arcade of beauty; we marvel that so much He intended for us to rise up to. This and more, this and celebration, this and a one-man show, Him never neglecting those for whom His Son died. Each Person valued and more, dastardly sins removed because He is on Mission to kill and destroy Sin. He takes it more seriously than we ourselves take it. He is more “in our camp” than we are in our own camp. He saw what the serpent did, and went Militant, On Guard, Attack Mode. Sin invents itself anew, every day we shake our heads in mild disbelief that what once was clean is all of a sudden made unclean; what once was of import is all of a sudden ignored; what once was healthsome levels of Confidence all of a sudden is futility and personal angst. He intends for us to Rise Up with His Son, but only if we realize that this much is needed. Only if we Begin to accept coaching and tutelage in His ways most sublime, not patronizing us, not faulting us, but rather with a dastardly hatred of sin Meeting us, Hurrying us along, Getting to the punchline: God for us.