2025-04-02 A Meditation on Pressure Cooker

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet 1:3-9 ESV)

Third eye, dwelling in the borderlands, the strangely comfortable posture of the soldier vis-a-vis regular society, is a posture of distant gaze. The pinch, the incongruity, the pieces that don’t fit: this is because strange Capacities of Man reveal themselves in those liminal dwelling places. Unfit to do the day’s boring societal duties, rather, more capable but hated, threatened, for the third eye, for the distant gaze, for the oblong figure-ground relationship, the soldier is like a fish out of water until finding the Groove and the Cadence, the Hectic relation to his or her more “normal” explanatory devices.

That is, “normalcy” is, to the soldier, a bit crazed, a bit manic or despondent, a bit compromised and in strange affairs, strange concessions to the quiet abusive demand or to the fraught tendrils called “getting by”. The soldier, if she or he sees farther, does so because their entire Being is consecrated and baptized into the strife which strife is in fact “correct”, “rightly seen”, “more true” than that bland ebb and flow of what passes for life together.

The crazy soldier, then, is tapped into an existence that bears up despite the contrasting Experiences that leave existential gaping wounds or question marks. Just who and where am I, after all? No matter: the pieces shan’t fit. These things indeed I did, and no fuss, neither safely becalmed nor inordinately bothered, by our own impulses and expediencies. It was, after all, in the service of the Crown called Christ. It was, after all, a case of going leagues farther than what polite discourse understands. It was a helmeted and armored-up Fixation, Presence, Persistence, and Certainty that led the soldier to go—not all-knowing nor smugly “always right”—but pinched and nerved up to be Third Eye and copacetic unto the higher floating spirits.

The hunger strife, the “dying to self”, the innate “Taste” for Gospel truths: these make radical members of each of us. Gladsome, of good cheer, the Encounter is one of a busy soul motoring about so happy and in their element, because Here… gospel Truth is being proclaimed!

Were we those who challenged the status quo, or did we just try to fit in? The incomparable weight of glory rests on those of some wild disposition and momentum: we are emerging vibed up from the pressure cooker. We are emerging charged up and boisterous from the steely gaze. We are incomparably suited up by the Knowledge of a Mission, of a God on High who commands, of a Blanket Mercy for any and all recent deeds that a late hour reflection questions, or that a long dialog with a peer (on unrelated topics) brings to the wearying-hours attention. Who… what… why… did I do this? Hide me from the wild offshoots of deeds scarcely discerned or hastily brought about! Only this, that our “insanity” is in fact a hunger strife and oblong mish-mash Effective and Salutary. We make a difference. We are a raw nerve pinched, and here lies Inspiration. Here lies no concessions to that long dialog that was all earthly terms. Here lies Joy and Peace, Excitement in believing. Here we lie, and regaling each Impulse and Action as Holy, Right, and True. Because of Spirit-led. Because of a Crucified Savior, who was far from Perfect to His contemporaries, which contemporaries banged the nails and tied the ropes. God is no respecter of persons, but in loving decisions does elevate and grant Gratitude to His servants, and to His children. For the timely Call. For the cruciform Walk. For the “Not my will but thine be done” mentality.

Metal greets metal. The stark nature of our Trials, of our Basic Training, of our elevation unto and towards what to so many peers is Invisible Authority: man is convicted of lacking in faith in what he or she cannot see. Our basic training has beaten the sin out of us, in so many ways, while also itself being unable to bring to completion or perfection the Human Frame. Man was pinched for a season, and that a long season, only to have it trained into his or her very Being, that God is discipline but God is love. God is with us when we say, “Oh”. Oh, there is a depressive spirit around here, and it is taking names. Oh, there is a mealy-mouthed weakness around here, and it is looking for conscripts. Or, Oh, there is a party spirit in the air, and I should be first to bless it with God’s glory, the praise of the saints. Against all cynicism and doubts. Against all efforts to earn our salvation. Against all that spells Hatred, Frustration, Failure. The preference for safer digs. Only this, that our chastity of spirit, our Basic Training, removes the dread and removes the jealousy, on so many fronts. God’s discipline is healthsome and Inspired. It heals and it remakes the sin-wounded ones. It points to our own sin as paramount, that we might forgive others and cease to make wild assertions aimed at them.