“3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. 13 Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. 15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— 18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.” (2 Ti 1:3–18 ESV)

Christian Encounter creates new frontiers of self-realization, self-awareness, formative and malleable Heart Shape. More, together in community, with a buddy or gal, we have a landing cushioned a bit, some semblance of a pastoral care that invents itself: there there be dragons! There, in the Christian’s Encounter, be odd lot jaunts and missions. We go on a Personal Quest, Mission amidst strange Anointings and Waters surrounding, blessing, washing over our awkward Heart. Our Heart that was all cagey and circumspect until Spirit talked some code speak to the sensitive areas, prodded the heart of the matter, made for Springs of water, healing waters, abundantly to flow.

The repartee called “Gospel Truth”, “Salvific Ointment”, “Cagey Protectionism”: we protect our Creed, because it came through in one or two sermons, a Creed cruciform and… adjectives fail to delineate our creed… cruciform and Invigorating: new speeds of thought, of emotional vulnerability, of present Distress no more, these race forth.

To the soldier in her or his mindspace, readiness: literally, some are Better than others, than us, perhaps, at the Cruciform self-abnegation. It comes more naturally to them. The soldier’s evocative response to all naysaying, to all cynicism, to all weary despondency: literally, life can be Lived Expressively, Firmly, Purposefully. The soldier then Discovers strange horizons, wild and wonderful Newness of stride (because the pastoral care… the Spirit handled what Man could not be present for), experiences of the Divine, the Sublime, the treasure trove, wellspring, of a New Cause, Concern, Matter, Estimation, and Goalpost.

So our war on behalf of Servant-minded Service, is a war whose fortress walls, are Rediscovered and Reminded by a Spirit on High: we “know” God’s inner logic, that the gifts and His callings are irrevocable; that no trial has come upon us but that He has given us the strength to surpass; that Christ died at the right time, while we were yet sinners.

Therefore to take ownership of matters at times elusive, is to “know better” than half the crowd… and to Share this awareness with the Spirit who has coached us. With the Godhead who has inspired us. With the Son who has befriended us. And—cue ambulance sirens echoing across the street—we were taken just a bit out of our Comfort Zone: strange new emotions or panicky attacks were entailed. And some had a rough landing thereby. Some were not Presented with that so-called reported Clerical Presence: yet we learned, in a seminary class or in a church nave, that the Pastor can light up in Hope and Occasion to Serve. To Serve the wild-eyed Experience and its fallout, of the saint. All of us can do this, and the thanksgivings reciprocal, these scarcely—if they are Remembered—do justice to just how much salvific Genius there was in our peer’s foray into our own subconscious and Heart.

Help your brethren, your sistren. Help by way of strange Example, walking on water Example, that the Heights and Lofty Realms can be tended to by a cloud nine, a cloud on High, a Hopeful airship subtle, invisible to all but the Best Friends, that carries us where God would have us to go.

Therefore to the code speak, insofar as we covet a second experience of Grace: what was the first Experience of grace? Something from a person, a preacher, a soldier, a newspaperman, that needed no apology, that was strong in and of itself not to be on weak pinions. We are those Resolute, that our deeds done in Christ, though errors pile up, are never things needing us to self-deny, to abdicate, to un-testify. Our testimony is simply this: that Christ came into the world for sinners, of whom we are the foremost.

And to the Soldier’s patient shock factor in mind of just how true it is: we are the foremost among sinners. And God uses such broken vessels—cliche here—to bring about His Kingdom. He uses us, immediately Restored and Set to Work, because the Community, the sociology of it all, the Original Sin of it all, is a community utterly Flawed. Capricious, jealous, ambitious, greedy, covetous, resentful, Denying the One who made them and denying the ones now Serving at the Altar. So we have our Restful Object to Pray Over, namely, Original Sin, Total Depravity, and amidst all this a Light forged in impossibilities and forged upon the foundation of Errant Deeds: somehow, the Power of a wandering soul come home, is Gold Mine and Oil Struck, is Stronger than the goody-two-shoes. All of us, we speak this code language, because it is what the War is all about. And easily we lose sight of that amidst the Enemy’s propaganda and psy-ops. Our own psy-ops, this is the hurried Fact of ghosting Demons, scaring them away, with a loud shout of deliverance, with a hearty Greeting, with a loving dastardly refusal to submit to the Spirit of Disengagement, of Solitude, of curled-inward hoarding and Worry.