“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 Cor 10:1-18 ESV)

Shock and trauma meet semblance of normalcy: all life a messiness, an imperfection, a failed computation, and to the Christian all this is no sweat off our backs but Encouragement to Dive In and make the dialog, make the tip-toed-around talking points, cease to arguing or discouraging oneself with the fact it isn’t so pretty, after all.

It isn’t so perfect or mechanistic, after all. It isn’t so productive in any pure machined sense, assembly-line efficiencies and all. We are delving into the Unknown, uncalculated forays and instinctual Responses. As soldiers we are no longer Appalled by the inanity, the illogic, the Fact after all: shouldn’t we be a bit more aggressive to capitalize, to argue our case, to handle deftly any and all elephants in the room?

But no, the undestructive, non-self-injurious path ceases to find fault in the illogic, ceases to blame oneself, ceases to Ask after a more planned or concerted Effort: our effort is Paramount, Tantamount to some Hero’s greatness on our behalf, His blood for our zany foray. We forage, we grin, we nod over pleasantries and come-to-Jesus brands of Logic: yes, you are forgiven, O Man, O Woman, we might intone, scarcely worrying if this is somehow ironical or duplicitous, insincere or corrupted. We are not corrupt: we do endeavor these things to hold High, our pastor, our Chief of the Soul, of the Heart, of the Sinner’s mind and body, is Present and melding and ironing out the crimps.

Therefore we are unashamed to be in a Holy War, unembarrassed, unplanning, unconniving, unduplicitous. Our posture is one of Making Do, not trying to come up with the perfect Excuse or Battle Plan, but Accepting: today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts like in the Rebellion. Harden not your Prideful hearts, nor your Escapist soul, nor your fanciful Mind. The mind wanders, and the more we try not to think of the pink elephant, we are victim to our own Law and Effort: we think of nothing but that elephant. So feng shui and karma teach us to go plainly Forgiven and mercifully Atoned For, copacetic and Calm.

Half-cocked, half-crazed, half-a lot of things, the Soldier relies on an unmechanical Authority, where there is a cool brand of warmth and love, cool only because we have not “come in from the cold”, and Warm, because He has the answers to all things. Drawing near, embracing the hour, it no longer behooves us to query why we are illogical yet calm.