“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.” (Heb 12:3-17 ESV)

To pray through innocence is to encounter both original sin and togetherness. It is easy to forget: our own ideations, these taint or prejudice our friendships with suspicion. And original sin, the doctrine of reformed and all Christian faith, teaches that we should have been a bit more “no holds barred”, a bit more “we can be very persuasive”, a bit more “I myself might be a bit more influential than meets the eye”. Yet on some plain policed level we cannot do as much; we are holy innocents; we are sadly inviting the lashing out or the Crime of original sin.

But to our suspicions: likewise there is plain time invested and Coming Together, the holy confidence that sometimes people just “vibe”. We do well therefore to learn to pray, to learn it isn’t yay or nay but rather just who and where our prayers focus: “So-and-so, you should see what they’re up to behind closed doors!” Or, “See so-and-so in the final issue stick out their neck for you, for the team, for goodness!”.

Because any good man or woman may discover: life is a patient plea, a self-giving sacrifice, a ruling amidst enemies, no matter how “big and potent” the good man or woman may be. And some, we learn our own lineage, we learn our own throne rooms, parental units, friends of the family, advisors and bosses past: that after all we were in some special enclave. That these really do go three dimensional on us, as far as the camaraderie most influential and authorized, that we have come to know as our tutelage, our spiritual lineage, our go-to clan.

Because each of us overcomes a life that cannot ever concede to Satan the importance of avoidance mechanisms. We cannot avoid all humbling experiences. We cannot legislate child raising as though nothing prayerful, living on a dime, living on a prayer, is in fact the main storyline. We hope for and pray for each other. We ourselves wonder where is the therapist’s couch at times, even as we fellowship with a Father, Mother in Heaven who continues to invest in us, despite our life on the edge. Despite so much being “up to us”. Despite our own feelings of inferiority.

Such authority: it moves past the questions of living and dying, and unto the question of Service. We err and muck things up, but are we Serving? As elites, as lead figures of an intelligence cabal in every positive sense, we use our “wits” to maneuver and our “life blood” to negotiate in person and our “charisma” to artisan-bless the gathering and our “formation” to give a touch of class and inviolable Branding to the affair. We are “formed” not by intelligence quotas or tests, but because genius is a reflection on coping and upbringing and Encounter, not mainly just the peaceful studious nature of the high marks on an exam.

The soldier is therefore in possession of Father in Heaven who literally only blesses, only invests in, only cheers, only affirms: these things, because He is bending over backwards to put us in a position of Self-Governance. But! Such-and-such might be the wrong move! We are after all reassured that wrong moves we shall be allowed to make, even, that is, until we take full ownership. He is by our cunning and cage-fighting side. He is our figure most death-defying, if only because of staring death down. He is both our policing officer and our sly company Man, Woman. Whose repartee, it shoots down at once any and all bickering, small talk, gossip, frustrated and exasperated utterance. He is reminding us never to question Father in Heaven, and that being for our own sake: that we are Beloved and licensed to Soar, for the sake of His magnificence now become ours.