2024-11-23 A Meditation on Refusing to Relent

“2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2-8 ESV)

Sneaky business, because everyone sees but through a glass dimly: yet broad and courageous we are nevertheless to Dream Big. To fulfill our vocation. To have a Vision, things set into motion and the proof some uncompromising Event or Encounter where the excitement never dies down; the patient thriving or the one-day Promise does beckon and boast and bless Today’s enigma or status or affair.

Because the Vision is learned and Immune against the sneaky subterfuge: I feel nothing of a fool for not including that in my Hope, we say. Jesus Himself, would he at stage One of His ministry, have foreseen the sneaky sad reality that Crucified Him?

Sneaky business means the Best in our midst find themselves of a sudden facing a Cross. The skeptics, overflowing with substantial Meat and Milk already, needed one more Lonesome Step Taken. By the one providing food. By the fact we bonk over the head and complain against a Giving Presence or an Idealist Persona. Only let it be insisted upon, that, given a Round Two, we shall not miss the opportunity a second time.

Foreign state meets friendly Progress. The army’s frontline Ambassadorial check-point means flesh in the game, vulnerable flesh even though the suicide bomber is a possibility. That in itself is a sermon to the world, the enigma, the flustering, the coy demuring until it is Proven that God—and We—have our flesh on the line, in the game, on the slaughtering block.

Therefore to Hope, Dream Big, is also the Call to Readiness, a mad all-night dash from here to there gathering belongings because it is Time to March On, to Evacuate the compromised sneaky surprise attack locale, and Reassemble, Reform, Recharge and Coalesce Anew around each of these sisters and brothers who Survived the blast. This is the spiritual Warfare no less Vivid or Real than the material warfare. This is the devil’s only plea, that we forget the Grand Vision and instead fuss over sneakiness. This is that hater’s only insistence, that we forget the Camaraderie and Good Will borne into our very histories together, and get cagey, lawyered-up, resentful, unforgiving, and lacking in the overall Blessed Joy and Companionship.