“16 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. 3 And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. Plans for Travel 5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. 10 When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. 11 So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Final Instructions 12 Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. 13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love. 15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— 16 be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. 17 I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, 18 for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. Greetings 19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. 20 All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 21 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. 22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (1 Cor 16:1-23 ESV)

Iron sharpens iron and the back-and-forth Informs cockpit-dwellers, decision-makers, the odd officer of something Bigger, who is on the scene. Together with barometers on High, we have rapport and live into the give-and-take of Ideas, Ideologies, What-Ifs, and Reminders. We live into what each of us prescribes as salutary to the Crew.

Always, the nuts are on the table, of things done as Draw or False-Front, of things done in Headship underacknowledged, the fact any Good Soldier is fulcrum and point of leverage to getting wider things done ‘round here. We are leaned on. We are jostled about but leaned on. We risk reputation and we risk the occasional harsh retort, when our missives land home (perhaps). The soldier stands in whilst everyone from the sociologist to the technologist goes Bedrock and Sound Framework for trust networks and reliable telephony or internet things. The stuff is put into place Anew, the former variant decades old, perhaps, but still Trusted. So, to the Day’s Question: O Soldier, O You, who Act and Fight and wear heart on sleeve, to you, is the progression of battle front still worn on the sleeve as Meaningful and Important? That we are not cynically despondent around meaningless war? That to the evangelical, all things are Evangel and Hope, to the Missionary all things are Mission and Help-Meet.

Vast realms of together-mindset are Today coming together, such that the Winner of tomorrow’s soldier’s war is some shopowner in the middle states or some newspaper reporter in the coastal states, or some law officer in the northern or southern climes. Strangely, we easily forget: Tomorrow’s Networks are already bustling, the wide latitudes of early spycraft—not spycraft but sincerity of friendships formed—are Today a little late arriving: already, everybody is fighting for Cause and Fraternity, Sorority, guild and that strange Remove wherein some are the Thinkers and Actionable Item ones, as others are Soldiers and Boots on the Ground. So we risk all… to endear ourselves to a New Token, under totem and false deities nonetheless we seek the One Deity called Christ.

It being a zany wild-eyed World to dwell in, but dwell Secure we do hope to promise to our people. It won’t all that much matter in the final issue, our nerves on edge around just who is the one to blame: we are sooth and confident that Peace is our game, that Righteous War is our game, that history will tell, that whomsoever fired the first shot, it was a long war of attrition and compromise that preceded said shot. And our Reason, therefore, is a Vision hosted in New Testament writ, of a marauding band of misfits for whom Aggressive mission-work became the inspired and jaw-dropping Norm. They were Missional, because of having Witnessed a Saint who rose from the grave. It changed Everything, the urgency of that hour in the locked room. Theirs were lives Borrowed and Consecrated unto an unplanned, legal but edge-of-the-world, Missional activity: called shot number one. Called aggressive stance. Called peaceful laying on of hands, when called for. Today, if you hear His voice, they said: do not harden your hearts like in the wilderness.