“12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. 17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:12-21 ESV)

To say that life is persistent, is to acknowledge that life constantly in the thick of the battle pushes on. Such was Christ’s Resurrection. Such is the easily-denied momentum to carry on, despite blase attitudes. We are movement and we are aspiration. We have an inner dynamo that Dares to press on nevermind the cat calls and naysaying.

Nevermind the discouraged pundit, verbalizing nothing but dread and lackluster performance: it’s too difficult for you; you’ll never measure up; see how sinful you are. Indeed, on a precipice, we are Observed and Hounded for any blemish whether perceived only or factual. Nevermind: we are blemished and this drives the interlocutor crazy: “Wait: you just said—I can’t believe you just said—you just said you were a sinner!” More than that, we are no holds barred and no concessions Bold to claim Christ’s free gift of forgiveness. Of a better Tomorrow, our repentance no weak nor despondent concession but a Bold Requirement that we accept the mercy Freely Given, we accept the Promise of a new day, of Tomorrow with these things in Christ’s ledger-book not our own.

He makes soldiers and He makes courageous ones. He makes individuals who despair not and who are stronger for the wear. We are stronger, because we are in tandem, in lockstep, with Christ and with His ideological mantra, His plans, His vision, His leadership. When naysayers arise—as surely they will—we hold fast to our Evolved Positivity, a measureless Attitude and Global Persistence to be strong and be ready. Forgetting all the accountancy for sin. Forgetting all the requests we keep balancing acts going. No, it is a dire frame of mind we are in, and the resolve, the resolution, is to Accept the boldness of Resurrection Life. Life together, life unapologetic and with dastardly caution not trying to keep our own books summed up. He keeps the books. He makes Active soldiers out of armchair theologians and philosophers. He encourages us precisely because we are if not despondent (depressed) then lit up (maniacal): it is a long lost stasis or middle ground, lost to the ravages of a human frame, body and mind, that refuses to be “normal” and “copacetic”. The addiction, the self immolation, the causes heartfeltly believed in, the playing of “the game” with all our cards in, all are investments in, all our intrinsic involvement Now and Here. These things make mockery of an earlier time in life, when we soothed and wandered and toed the line, a line that respectfully kept us “in the game”, simple and laughable in our more manifest sins, but all the same, simple. Never, always, at no time, were we free of the thorn in the side: always a bit between despondent, hasty, and making-do, we look back with a new fondness that wasn’t ever in the moment felt for long.

Now, to be Accepting of Christ’s Resurrection, is to return to an earlier state, to have that same sense of capacity and fun, to be that same kind of respectable. Fools for Christ, yet with earnest desire to be found inoffensive so that the offense of the gospel might prevail and make citizens of the Kingdom.