2023-08-04 A Meditation on On Patrol

“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.” (2 Co 1:12–14 ESV)

It’s a bit constant the quality of life whereby we rest content and unafraid, on patrol and therein mauled by unbelief, yet certain we are vouchsafed over unto God. Our souls go for a dive deeper than what we cautiously would allow. Our best edifices are mockingly crushed. Our panic attacks dispel, though, to some more pressing endeavor: to be social, to talk out of an apocalypse of the soul, worried over words until found in the Spirit, Alive and Discovered.

See, that no fear accompanies the soul if it has companionship, literal or spiritual, through the harrowing hour. We reach a point of immunity to any fears and know the process of what Paul the Apostle calls “Dying” (1 Co 15:31) as something a bit inconvenient but nonetheless welcome. We have “died” and our lives are vouchsafed unto God. We long for a brighter day not of lazy armchair critiques but of ample work for the hour. We long for all life to reach repentance: sorrowing over the bad digs of so many brothers and sisters, who deserve better employment. That is, our criticism of the world around us is all-encompassing; we certainly cannot afford to be cynical over the plight of any comer: the addict, they can help diagnose others, if only they were physically prevented themselves (or lovingly shown patience and unbounded trust) from indulging.

And the church-goer, themselves victim to untold bad theology, talk of a future day when finally we will all stop sighing over this unsanctified comer. No, that “unsanctified” woman or man is unafraid and unperturbed, cheered by some secular fare, perhaps, after the mauling at the hands of would-be believing friends. See? Do you sympathize, that this one or that one simply cannot afford to indulge in these fantasies of eventual betterment. Of a future day when finally we all will stop sighing in their general direction. So, faith rediscovers theology, and we are punchy, belligerent, in the Name of that Cause called Testimony.

Three things, to be Ready in every hour for a dying experience aka trust fall. To genuinely mourn an utterly broken and clogged societal system, therein putting our efforts not in further damning “those people” but in rejoicing when any one soul comes to a saving knowledge, yes, a knowledge only possible in tandem with sacramental life change, new opportunity, cause and platform from which to reflect and testify. Three, really to weep alongside those who are mauled by the poor theology, to hear it as a casus belli, something we cannot overlook even for an hour. Trust me, it is not self-serving to teach good manners and good theology; it is a cry for help when people in a witching hour judge and prescribe further acts of supererogation to the would-be testament of any newly saved souls.