“2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. 5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. 8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.” (2 Cor 7:2-9 ESV)

Plausibility, the war we declare against sin is certain, is principled, is not cavalier, however is hazardous and full of losses. We dare say, it is impossible ever quite to “win” this war, because on our heels, fighting temptations within and oppressions without, the battle lines blur and a certain resignation challenges us still to Rise Up. We Rise Up still because Christ was persecuted, Christ slandered, Christ tempted, Christ ended.

That is, the Christian soldier’s Hope is that their brief earthly lives, their sojourn, is somehow Evocative of Something, something is Shared with the community, with mankind at large. And to the puzzling concessions we make at times, to a plausible narrative (all of us acting with imperfect information), to a contrived but reasonable storyline, to endless chess moves or peoples’ fears of who and what peers in, on this day, on an arbitrary day, on a day we failed somehow to preach as though for the last time, as though needing to put our entire justification for being into words, our entire last will and testament, heirs female and male “out there”, yet we… we certain of Life upon Life. That our Calling and Vocation is irrevocable, and enemies make strange brands of friends in some ways, yet we plead, the efficiency is already as efficient as possible, there is no more “room” to tempt further with apples of any variety, the apple of Intelligence, the apple of Lust, the apple of Knowledge, the apple of power.