“3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Heb 12:3–17 ESV)

First the yardstick that measures how Christian we are, is never static or fixed but rather measures lunges and heroic gambits, advances, baptisms by fire and by water. Simply to read the literature of Christian “Discipleship” puts us in a frame of “Huh” mindset, at times. But in all this the key takeaway is that Already we are baptized, Already walking by faith and in the Spirit, Already theologically more than sound: perfected. Being Perfected in Him. Because we are Specific as to one point and one point only, Christ for sin, His life and death for our benefit.

That yardstick, then, wields a rather ungainly swoop like a very long sword in the room a bit chaotic and havoc-wreaking. Because all of us stand Today, This Day, to be Evangelized. All of us need that “Aha” moment of some writer or preacher, spirit or one seldom of many words, talking up Sabbath observance (give your bodies and minds rest; forgive the debts; heal the land), talking up our Desires and how these really go wilderness and wildebeest if we don’t Push, Shove, Advance the Front, every day to be Healed by the good sermon and the good Teaching. After all, we invent steps to get closer to one pleasant situation or another, but all this—elderly or youthful, sinners all the same—is only supplanted not by some quizzical or boring “Sainthood” but by a lived and wielded Sainthood called Proper Passions, Proper Affections, Proper Obsession. We obsess now over not the “Darkened room and its images” but over the right to an hour in Union with the Holy Spirit as we pray. That becomes our special place, and even though there is always worldly temptation, nevermind the flesh, mind the drink or the drug, because though we know those to be ruinous, we also don’t quite mind or give a care. We don’t quite want, having experienced that anthem of music, club music, country music, rock and roll, classical, to be drawn near, except to stand for something we Believe in, and tonight just as well may be all we have. We have tasted, nevermind the drink or the drug, so often minus anything but the recovery, the come-down, the end of the night, however staid and sober it may have been, still the Fabulous Nature of having tossed caution to the wind. And God curates our passions, invites us into Provisos offered, safer scenes.

Because we don’t have all the answers. And our Christianity, as those in the Field and in the Forest, camo and crazily vulnerable to attack, is a shifting sandstorm of Possible Ventures: what is Smart, better not to be Too Smart, since they will put us in a teacup and let the tempest of Principles, of Taking a Stand, of Self-Identification as Christ’s Soldiers, will be studied and every word—for these are “Jews” who believe in the bible, believe in Prophecy—studied, every sharp angle blunted. So we do not want to be too smart.

Yet also these “Jews” (not a reference to today’s Jewish diaspora, but to those who killed Christ being His closest family and friends ethnically speaking) will believe in an unguarded moment, and tax the speaker until kingdom come, for the unguarded “reveal”: only this, if that speaker is you or I, we are actually a little clever in that regard, to “reveal” something safe, a nominal “enemy” who in fact is a best friend.

The takeaway, then, the yardstick of who is “more Christian” is about welcoming New Voices and yet seeing all who profess Christ to be like Calvin said, totally depraved. And all of us can go the fasted route of simply absent-minded confusion or forgetfulness, that “desires” mislead and confuse… yet never so holier-than-thou as to claim a safe perch minus the flesh: instead we laud and celebrate this hour spent in human company, male or female, this hour spent in the art gallery or cinema, this hour spent reading in peace the daily fare and news. All those are things longed for, and what is avoided is the wake-up call to suit up and get an early start on the shift, the bookkeeping and paper work, the therapy that can either go both ways, a boon or a hindrance.