“12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. 15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Cor 1:12-22 ESV)

To feel a sense of ownership begins with the rather surprising fact we are remade already and owned up to in Christ: He acknowledges us, saves us, remakes us, bends over to appease us. It is a strange Reality that coaxes us from the hiding places of life, out of the shadows, into the Presentable, to some, Respectable digs. For whether Respectable or offensive on account of the Cross, we present a personal Mastery that owns into, surrounds in prayer, understands God for us, not just God going about His elsewhere business. 

And this startles. This makes the countenance strike a new High Chord. This makes the poor seem wealthy, the pitiable seem satiated, the morose seem like elation. Because the soldier’s mindset Rehearses, Readies itself, Repeats the mantra: God for us, we His gladsome footsoldiers who Own, who Purchase into, who Regale with appropriateness of response, the Call to duty, to arms, to spiritual War.

And the need, then, to pace ourselves: tempting as it is to say that every day is Game Day, we nonetheless adhere to a mantra repetitive and sublime, haunting and bass-heavy, subtle and all-encompassing, that Christ is our Gatekeeper, our Guardian, our Angel on High, and we—we His people—we remain Alert though rested, Ready though awaiting a tomorrow, Patient though nervous types. Prepared, we are warming to that Dutiful mindset: today’s duty: discharged. Today’s service: kept up. Today’s mantra: vocalized.

Careers there are many; the ownership of Christ’s Estate means that art speaks louder than words, of that strange creature the artist’s wish and plea, their joke and bargain with life. Others have their own variants on the matter: monied incomes, elected offices, community positions of respect. Art, it speaks to all of these insofar as it is Owned by all comers, insofar as even in its radically different politics it focuses sanely, cogently, patiently, on certain fables and legends, on certain can-do attitudes and consummations, even of doing on screen what is opposites-thinking to what is done in reality.

To take ownership in the national Estate, then, in Christ’s Estate, then, is to cease in unprincipled manner to play the “lesser of two evils” card: “Hey! See a wolf on the horizon, who dared to say x, y, and z!”. No, we wear our own hearts on that same sleeve. We are principled and never stoop to seeding our own professed antagonists, enemies, with an invite to oppose and oppress what is convenient for we ourselves. That is, all life is occasion to spill the beans and shout “wolf”, but God’s will and way will in patience overcome both the malfeasance and the fright that such malfeasance has put paid to Any and all Hope in this world. The soldier carries on. The preciously respectable, or at least owned into, Estate is carrying its weight, doing its duty, aping even those who would die rather than see another leaf or flower blossom on the tree of Life.

Capitalism has not lost. Art has not won. Social justice has not earned universal acclaim and pursuit. The middling classes, they have their parties and their outlets, but Character teaches not to thus be jealous or hasty: everyone has their Giftings from the Spirit, as well, if not from material things. To be a prophet. To be a pundit. To be a favored daughter or son of a graduating class or a contingency most militant. And in these things we relish the opportunity to Celebrate and to warm to our own brand of cool.

 Law and justice, service and war, it calls out to us that we are submitted creatures, who serve the denizen, the Citizen, we daily find ourselves closest to. We do preach Law, if in service to Grace. We do preach Mercy, if in service to Uprightness of Behavior. We do preach unthinkable personages, if to think on them is to address a longstanding void or crime. Voids, they come and they go: the mystery of how at one time the void was being filled, this mystery is always a source of false-confidence to any and all would-be aspirants, who thus observed, because it is a non-transferable sort of praise and anointing. We all of us, children of the King, appeal and apply boldly, to the funding, to the Belonging, to the shared Estate, begging Please for that winsome chance attitude that might see us with compassion, with favor, with approval of what we are getting our days up to. But that is a momentary thought: above all, the people rely on super-national realities, non-governmental attributes, havens, religious communities and schools, where bright things happen, where bright people thrive, where some kind of “Cool” is shared and innocence precludes all and any betrayals or opportunistic gambles. We are children for His sake, who made us and who sent us, who observed in us something daring or persistent, a warring mentality or a peaceful insistence. We are all things through Him who strengthens us.