“12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Do Not Grow Weary 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:1-17 ESV)

Arriving at boundless status, we are robbed if we don’t go there via the Human. If we try and cut to the chase, short shrift, make hasty resolve. Our hasty resolve, this is to Trust the One sent to us, to mourn for the right season but in all things to see: it was Three Days He spent in the tomb, or less if you count it out. Two nights, or so.

Because thematics roam and gesture, thematic notions of Space or Substance unintegrated into our New Persona. We have our Persona of highest quality, yet New Things… we haven’t yet incorporated, we are still wincing or purring, still frantically avoiding or desirously pursuing. Feng Shui, status of Copacetic, realm of Cohesive: these things are found Immediately in that blank space or daring night raid or solemn observed day pursuit. We immediately find that to Name the Error, to Name the Matter, this is to walk Into it, and therein to be Blessed… not because it is so pristine and we are so innocent, but because precisely in the mess and muck of life, is where Jesus intervenes Himself.

A people, then, half-crazed on notions of Sharing Christ, on notions of Blessing the Masses, on notions of Evangelizing the Countryside… these fine instincts meet the solemn Reality of War. At times we are more cagey or more nervous, than at other times (the latter being when we see it all from a distance, a safe remove, a solemn perch). We are more subdued, even, in times when it beckons from our own doorstep, that Peoples will line up and people will be slaughtered, that we Find a news network Sublime and Eyes on the Prize. We find our Intake, our Media, our Information Sharing, on the docket called Spirit, called “What Christ Sees in Us”. What Christ sees, is a people easily swept up in mourning the wrong things or celebrating the wrong things: life springs abundant and Eternal, for those gone the way of sacrifice. We ourselves wonder, as our Perch in this life is seemingly surreal, but in that miasma it is Revealed we are group-think or the Fruit of the prayers of this other, this other with whom now, no resistance, we are Melding and Merging. And such will be eternal life as well, some Entrance into a More Expansive hovering and sainthood-in-the-sky. Why, is death so scary and painful, even? Because of the surpassing Worth of knowing it to be but our one percent of Life being Completed, and that not without fanfare, without the solemn trumpet playing taps, without the stark salute and memories shared.

The soldier of Christ bears down on Any and All defeatist thinking, with the news: go to the Defeat. Go to the Pain. Go to the Obstacles. God Constantly works and reworks the cipher called Life, in utmost Patience, untold detail-work, incredible working-together. While we go panic mode, He is patiently timing the matter and announcing the duration of the spat. The spat with sin. The New Normal of distant wars and hometown respect, appreciation for the hometown Safety. That we might be Agents sublime, most Curious and Eager to Encounter and to walk that solemn walk down the street in the presence of Many, yet Individually-Working Individually friending or following, commiserating or directing. We give orders, even, in our strange Perch and our wild-eyed Experiment with something New and Beautiful, until punctured by the uptight or less eternity-minded soul. But to that Reverie! It is what we will dwell upon should the end of days come. That strange boldness is afforded the Figure of each of us, because we are More than the individual, we are the Team. We are the group-think. We are the Ecstasy and the Sanity-Check: that music is made where there was arid desert. That nations revere each other rather than go belligerent with each other. That friendships are formed and reformed, while our War, if there is War, is evangelistic in Nature, not just of Christ but of freedom and His patient fatherly Love for the people, from His solemn mountainous remove. Not that they’d all “Convert” but that they’d have One Special Experience… of being loved from On High, of parable or healing directed even individually their way… of culpable joy being in their hands and on their playmobile.