“3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.” (2 Peter 1:3-15 ESV)

If we half knew the mounting opposition, we might—like a social faux pas, like the urgency of “fixing” the wrong word shared—startle out of our perfectionism, out of our ennui, out of our lost ambition, and attack with urgent care the elephant in the room. Because it is all things on the line. Because better now than later, with a sword to our throat. Because we are after all those who are Prophetic of tomorrow’s War.

More, to study our own healing efforts past, this is to rise up suddenly meek and suddenly sage, a little worried but also a little emboldened. By the historical trend, giftings to the community, things we scarcely knew we were doing. The contrite Word. The Encouraging cadence or poem. The ways we Express what Christ is for us: the winner for the loser, and us… for all our reclusive and personal touch, for all our art and engagement, by and by we are what we were as children still today: halfway, half “cool” and half “loser”, “getting” some things and others not so much.

Christ came to address the imminent concern for Good Works. He taught a strange repose, a reclined or reactionary response of simply Accepting His love, minus actively trying to earn it. He taught the male in us, the female in us, to “get used to” Grace. As something patently Devoid of good works or any and all ambition to impress and to rise to His level. We are subdued, and He likes us for it. He is excitable around our Humility and patient, curious, observation.

If we half knew, the mounting cavalcades and blitzes, the Readiness of a paranoid or hawkish Entity Other than us, then we would with sadness shelve so much of our good deeds, and accept: either we win this one by God’s patent grace and intention, or we lose this one, perhaps as a judgment on sin. Are we going to be judged? We are those who, loserdom aside, social ineptitudes or cautionary no-go zones aside, still Accept the embrace of the loving Father, who encourages us, cheers us, blesses us, and all this with no imperative to do some good works in exchange. We are not going to lose, after all. Christ has heard our solemnity and our confession. Together, we are a team to reckon with. Together, we sadly go to the Front, but also gladly take up the armaments, visit the armory, cry a bit over the mournful dirge, and lighten up wild-eyed and half-cocked to Face, to Stare Down, to Engage whatever comes our way.

Because of this: that Faith is both incommensurable, jaunted, odd-ball, and loco, and also Owned, and Ours to manhandle. We handle our faith as such an odd divergence from the so-called status quo, from the so-called groupthink or socially acceptable Expressions of love. Our love is expressed strictly in Law and Gospel terms: we Love on others minus any heavy-breathing or looming shadow cast over them or us. We love by Hearing the gentle affection of a peer, a friend, a sibling, a parent, and listening for whether it is couched in proving ourselves or in a confident Countenance benign and calmed, rested in the knowledge of Preventive Grace. Grace that prevents the boast. Grace that then talks through manifestly-many works, but not as in themselves salvific. This is Peace. This is Sought. This is front-line Service. This is our Inheritance.

A soldier always, pray always, brings to mind the Urgency of the hoards amassing. A soldier is dire and urgent to Remedy and Fix any and all faux-pas’s of a gentler or more innocent, lackadaisical time. The ways we crimped the affection or harmed the collegiality. The ways we stand up better under Pressure: to remedy and fix the bleeding, the leeching away, the hemorrhaging. We are heroes, and we also know the doctrine—from affectionate teachers—that we have some responsibilities and some non-responsibilities. We are not responsible for certain concerns, be they family or teacher, be they kids, grandkids or neighbors. We have arrived (Psalm 16) in our life work and our inheritance. To find satiety in this kind of work… it is a high calling and no reason to balk or demure. So we fight on, gladly entering into this Estate and into this battle eternal. Not quite eternal, but persisting at least for a generation to come.