“13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25  but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:13-25 ESV)

The premise in which to Thrive, it reflects that Inspiration is costly and many have contributed to give us the opposite of Pressure to Perform, rather some highly costly experience of Space and Normalcy. We go to all the trouble to make a future for our progeny, only then to leave the Compulsion or Line Items unspoken. Instead of making demands, or setting parameters, we back off and pray.

We pray because Inspiration is forged in a furnace that needs no introduction. We do not need to Invent human need and the child’s quest for a call to Come Up Here. The child murmurs and expands, limbs stretch and Occupy all the space granted, though at high cost.

Routines, commitments to perform, the Intangibles are things we shoulder and take up: we Decide to hold ourselves accountable and to find Meaning in this duty. But more, we lean in to the fact each of us is dependent on the other. The Teamwork, the Group Mind, the solemn assignment of each of our respective Duties: this already is heavy in the air and thick in the Scene, though to an outsider or naysayer it is all absent and void and imagination alone. The naysayer does not Understand: not all Duty is obvious and compulsory, the best Duties we are already doing because of inner Drive rather than because of compulsion. We invent and Imagine Big, we see an entire Apparatus of logic that some simply haven’t arrived at as of yet.

And then to keeping ourselves Pure, this is so easily the conclusion of a dark night of the soul: we awake and Resolve, to fuss and preen around staying pristine. But True encounter with the Holy, and we go to the mat at once, determined and eager, long absent all Compulsion and sense of explicit Chore: we have no chores but to Live into the light of Christ and His Cross. This is Minus any action plan around desiring to be better people. This is really Trusting in the group mind and Trust fall, so that we can be an army of One and Uniquely positioned strangely inspired, to go to that place of warmth for untold Tales to tell and Exuberance to walk into.

That is, the Cross is simply our blinking eyes the morning after, still coping, still alive, joyous and longing for more. Next week. Next month. Next year. Our cozy Inspiration is ours alone, yet is enough to endear us to the Company. We operate as the spirit leads, because the Duty already is Discharged by Him who joyously loved us.