2023-10-21 A Meditation on Moment of Clarity

“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.” (2 Co 1:12–15 ESV)

Heart placement, moment of clarity: all mankind is trapped in cisterns and bondage. We do well, having had a wakeful resistance that is principled, or a religious experience, to capitalize. We place our hearts well because we have Arisen. We are our own referees when we have decided that the going is too sour or arduous; it is when we are defeated by our own assessment, that we allow to enter a Holy Spirit, found in the by-and-by, the ether, the fellowship. We see a habitual or abusive relationship, and correct: stand tall. We see a foolish pattern, and correct: act wise. We see a self-defeating hunger, and correct: go easy.

Heart placement means the situational propriety, appropriateness, of each holy observer and participant; we take on faith the propriety and the appropriateness, to be used and to embellish the gifts unto others; to know the highs and the lows; to tune in, and tune out; to be front and center relevant, on the cuff, hastening in ample bellicosity to the scene of the crime, with verve and punch, with a spiritual brand of Purpose, Ambition, Accomplishment, Fight, Pluck, Determination. The Spirit rockets the inspired, insightful, newly birthed, soldier into a stratosphere of differentiation from his peers back home or unassigned: he is in a holy cohort, she is in a holy guild, they are found in dream and exploratory visit to the barracks and to the front, to be less pitiable than we thought, healthsome women and men of the services, with their offices and habits, with their fellowship and their guile, with their welcome and their humor.

Therefore to have an experience of Grace is to dwell Relevant, Near, Placed. To be placed in an embedding front is to rest assured that the gifts and the callings they are irrevocable; we can dig deep once again and find our home base of the soul. We can allow all manner of doubt to ricochet off of our Christ-experience. We can grow and wean from the teat and from the patronizing lowering, the condescension. We can know our own hearts so placed as to be frontline ministry, soldiering, apropos punditry and determined plugging away. We are determined and we no fuss proceed to bless the sisterhood and brotherhood; it is no aggression to bless, no presumption to speak to a living soul with confidence and composure; it is no religious abuse to speak, if we dare (as we do) to call ourselves Experientially Blessed, Called, Ready and Able. So our joy is a joy amidst that clarion call to clarity, to seeing the loops and reversals and the complete misappropriation of Holy Things, in the heart that acts violently regarding spiritual words, in the heart that self-hates and so hates on others, in the heart that self-loves and so excludes others from the more special and chaste areas of the person.

How can we obtain this placement of the heart, this moment of clarity? It is through painstaking words, discussion, preaching, that so begins to talk of difficult things rightly and boldly, even if it means using colorful language, who knows. Some in the arts world understand this, and heal others. Some in the pulpit understand this, and bless the same spirit that heals. We are fighting without and trembling within, until our mettle is formed around Christ. We draw near, as we divest ourselves of the recent bouts with temptation, with self-justifying deeds and thoughts, with irresponsible actions, things we wouldn’t want to be transparent or known to others; it is call to shed a tear at times, to stop trying to be so holy and composed. It is a call to deliver from the heart of Man, Woman, a bully pulpit that blesses and that evokes, bringing to the light all things that make up the day, not just those points of boastful writ and pride. For we love to enumerate our accomplishments, but struggle to testify to our salvation story. Until God helps us. Rather, until via His created soul we have a wellspring of good deeds and simple reliance come from within, to His Name and Glory.