“5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Death in Adam, Life in Christ 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Ro 5 ESV)

Salvation central prevents and exhorts the saint against malaise and towards Progress, respectively. We are prevented from biting off more than we can reasonably chew. We are those strangely couched in our nook and cranny of the world, elders somehow having their “set” and we ours. Others have their “people” and we have ours. Others have their worries and we, our worries, are curbed and curtailed so as to be amenable to our talents, our wide ambitions to Serve, our instilled Righteous Cause sensibility.

And towards Progress: it is a healthsome Subconscious that is familiar and habituated to loving tender embrace. Yet a satan has entered in! The truth is, all of us are angular and perspicaciously Harmed, traumatized, battling our own kin rather than manifest Demons: the Demonic in one person’s hurried exit or another’s rampant aggression, domination tendency, insisted-upon Largesse.

So we go to the Cross, where Love has aped all vulnerabilities unto Pride and too-clever-for-our-own-good mindsets. It is a War we fight, sometimes just wishing we’d be hated upon or condescended towards, because after all it’s what we deserve. Just serve me my licks and I’ll take them! But no, the Christian’s Framework revolves around sincere Aptitude to Heal and to Combine Traits and Skills. 

To “Fast”… this is to curtail our Exposure to the Elements, not erroneously submitting to a confusing and false Judgment at the hands of our peers. It is difficult to believe, when we go a little stir-crazy with the dialogs and conversations, to Recollect: were we to go Existential and Frame our lives as a folding chair amidst a sparse room, we would reach the Stars with the knowledge of just Whom in Heaven we work for. We work for the People, and boy does it take time to Learn just what we can obtain by petition or by grumbling free-fall. “Catch me!” No, we learn of a Father in Heaven, full of cheer, but watching in parenting patience, as we err and go lopsided or error-prone again and again.

Yet sometimes we do pray, we might just Please Him. Our Spiritual “father of Spirits” (Hebrews 12:9). All life’s existential questions are answered: “Would you be rich? Already you are!”; “Would you be in the lap of luxury? Better the spare hospital and barracks of Service!”; “Would you be indulged and surrounded by affection? Already the angels brush by in Respect and Dutiful Service—towards us in regard for their and our Parent in Heaven!”.

So the Father, the Head of Princes and Princesses, of Kings and Queens: He gestures and never repeats Himself, never worries that His large orders and generally largesse, isn’t taking root in His people. He points, and a flock of birds flies in mystical synchronicity. He states, and we His people snap to. People subscribe to His YouTube channel and Facebook page and more, as if any God Above had such; no, like Moses, we see but a momentary Apparition: it being too holy to look in the Face.

So to those existential questions: all our mania and insanity is wrapped up in the Militant’s Factual Knowledge wherein war is Crazy; social propriety, this is denuded or dressed overbearingly; politeness or calm disposition, well maybe some Half-Crazed Jaunt is in fact going rightly to address the Elephant in the room: war. We please the Father because we pay due diligence and service to the Cause, rather, we are not “fresh-mouthed” or “smarty-pants” to toot our own horn. He has instilled innate Service-Mindedness, Fear you might say, but Holy Copacetic coming together. Every rebellion, it is literally nipped in the bud; torture chambers for the unsaved, and healthsome Encouragement for those on the wings of salvation and prayer. Only we wish ill-tidings on None: that those not yet saved would have the branding iron go even deeper in cut, in forming, in journeying through each persons’ valley of despond. If only we can take the unsaved on a jaunt, they will see the Light. If only we had time and preachers to save every soul on Earth, because terrifying is the notion of unsaved. Terrifying even if we ourselves count ourselves in the Master’s good flock. So to the barracks, forgiving ourselves our obsessed-over sins and faultlines: today is as good a day as any to come forward as a Disciple of Christ, a Servant of the Godhead, a patron of His arts and His barracks and His frontline. With the people, not removed. Besides the kin, not off-putting. Alongside the friends, not ungrateful.