2023-09-16 A Meditation on Knowledge or Faith

“2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5” (2 Th 2:1–5 ESV)

Do we thrive on knowledge or on faith? The last to know, the situation untold, awareness inhibited: those closest to the orb, closest to the heart, closest to the puzzle, have little more than their faith to carry them. They are the last to know (Ro 11:25). Their greatness uncovered, is like the therapist says, something all are born capable of experiencing: one day a mess, another day rising and thriving. One day leapt beyond, by a partner or friend, and another day graciously gliding into the driver’s seat: your faith prepared you. Your faith meant a chastity and receptivity, a preparedness and a locus, healthy-minded by habit if not by calculated effort. Healthy-spirited by praise if not by determination. Healthy-minded by submissive study if not by cold desire.

Therefore we believe that it is embedded, something born this way, that all are equal and fairness prevails: is it fair, we ask plaintively, and reckon gladly to the end of supporting our fellows and gals, our “others”, our charges, our friends. All can have magical moments, insane courage under fire, deep prayerful sympathy for a pal, calm disposition of revealed sorts, a merit revealed rather than judiciously thought upon; a psychedelic strangeness or difference from the habits and ruts, the worn pathways, the studied march.

Then simply for a breathing room kind of soldiering: march and discipline granting a little by way of peace, of freedom from the ties that bind and the sins that hinder. No prigs nor self-righteous, we expect Jesus’ greatness to be revealed somehow through us who are so near yet because of it the last to know. We languish in stupor, in malaise, in praise services and worship music that didn’t quite vibe or seal the deal. Yet for some of us it did. It became the Solution to a life misspent yet falsely expected by all clerical types to be only a few steps away from a more perfect estate. As though only some were flagrant. As though only some were self-inhibited by their sins. As though we were asked by arbiter of the soul to go additional steps beyond our first encounter. Which encounter spelt relief and comprehension. Which encounter Called to us from a place distant yet allowable to our hearts wishing to roam. Which understood: some have greater burdens and crosses to bear than others. Some have a measure of submission a little insane in its demands. Some fight against a spirit inimical, a hateful spirit that doesn’t perhaps even actually want submission to its demands, for fear of what? For fear that if the submission is seen, which it certainly has been on some locus or playing field, well then life will still be broken beyond relief. The submission prescribed is unable to save in and of itself. Salvation is nearer now than the hour we first believed, because it is a salvation immediate and Understood: sin plagued recipient now Saved by the Almighty. And in this vein we all can walk. Life is indeed a puzzle solved. Life is indeed a miserly balk and complaint now assuaged. Life is indeed a prig brought to the altar of conversion, a self-righteous brought to the mat of more proper brand of submission. So whom, we ask, are we serving? Two kingdoms, one of Man and one of God; yet the latter itself bustling, threatening rupture until we actually believe all things work Together for good (Ro 8:28), kingdoms conjoined like twins, rupture averted, fighter’s pattern of behavior divinely planned and choreographed.