“13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Prophecy and Tongues 14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.” (1 Co 13:1–14:5 ESV)

Heroic decisions categorize so often in the simple column. Simple goodness, a benign—punchy but benign—statement of Bless. With ample Forgiveness implied (even and especially when the very premise Forgiveness is needed, is rejected). But ample Forgiveness Implied: that life is helter-skelter and rapidly devolving all around us, and some Decent Soul’s decision to say Bless, to decide not to prosecute, to seek some semblance of a Peace derived when Lawsuit and Technicality do not intrude. Yes, because the Intrusion, no matter how Righteous the suit and the complaint, brings with it armaments drawn, swords brandished, topsy-turvy bottoms-up ineffectiveness and painting with brushes a little too broad.

That is, all of us Engage the scene called Christ-Like living; all of us Know we are shaped in His image; all of us Know strange Coming-Together of the kingdom. That we count it blessed to have a Christian Deed to entertain us today, to make us laugh a bit and gently, wisely, absent-legalese, to Give.

If we are shaped in His image, it is with the end product of a suited up and dazzling, bedecked and Presentable strange fashion statement: we Present our crew and our niche of the world, to the broader Warring Faction called Populace, called Broadsheet, called Open Seas, as buttoned-up and regular in Style, Proud to fit into the parade. Because we shared an Experience. Because we wanted to cry “Holy” for the whole world to hear. Because we… we were the utterly inspired forsooth uninebriated yet Crazed Inspired Vocalisms. We Spoke, and a Peace was broadly adopted. We Spoke, and a level-headedness was subtly adopted. We Spoke, and something off-key was tuned up.

To the ramparts, then, of a weird sensation that Everything we Do under the sun… it is half-cocked and half-crazy! But all this because of a distant Run, a Far Spirit called Defense and Inspiration and Reassurance, jostled out of our den, but Absent the larger sins… call us Bold, call us Self-Assertive, call us Half-Cocked and Crazed… but at least note, the freedom from the larger sins. Perhaps.

Because to hide from mother and father, to eek out a living on the fringes, always hiding, using the side door, bowing our head when not necessary… this meets Holy Boldness when we Dare to speak up and accompany our partner, neighbor in dialog, to the Bridge. To the command-and-control. We have it within ourselves, this Ability to sparkle and shine Publicly, even if like a gently glowing wick, the time will come for it to be run out, snuffed, burnt all the way down. Our Game, it is beset with Gentle Persuasions all around: to Forgive the rampant talk of sin, but to do so knowing we are just as guilty. To Heal where there is that Impetus and Tendency to go far and wide, broad and deep, because we were Utterly Surprised, awoken from a day-to-day that uses ten percent of our mind, awoken to Speak and to Glow Forth like the candle.

Tomorrow’s war, it will be radically different, as call centers overwhelm and prices fluctuate; strange days, when forty years ago people were still bound by landlines and libraries, rather than cell tower and internet searches. We will Coalesce, Covet, Earn and Bandy-Together small enclaves of Sanity, because of a prophetic shark attack that curtained sin and opened the gates for Righteousness. Every simple deed, it is magnified and the heroes are the meek in the land. The heroes… to go void on the planned Entailed Deed, and simple on the Come-What-May goodness. If one crew is too destined for failure, groupmind and sickly gestalt, then do invoke a neighbor, to speak as to the sanity of it all, to speak just a word or two of judgment insofar as we are thus expected to Judge, of blessing insofar as we are thus expected to Bless, of Strength and Boldness, insofar as we are expected to Pony Up and Lance Forth and go Dastardly Ne’er-Do-Well sick no longer Ambition. We need to go beyond the notion that all will level out in the end, and go the route of Urgent Upset Mentality, to speak because we are Aped and Goaded, but to do so reactively, calmly, in Certainty God is there to reassure: you are a chosen race, a holy priesthood, a people of His own calling (1 Peter 2:9).