“2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. The New Commandment 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 12  I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. 13  I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14  I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do Not Love the World 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 Jn 2:1–17 ESV)

There was something Legit about the escapade, something quite Integrated and Home Base about it all: to recollect and bring to mind that these matters are not only wildly Alluring, but also are equally wildly True, is to bring to mind our Station and Rank in the matter. We were, all along, working for the Best of the Best, for myriad happy and busily-engaged Shop Floor, or War Room employees: our friends.

Our new and lauded, esteemed Friends. Something Ultimate pertained, made purchase in the hour: to Agree and Seek ever longer the Higher Callings in life, this is scriptural. New Testament writ encourages as much, and for us in our little life pods, escape pods, indwelling Communes and Barracks, the perimeter means we all along had a Line straight to the top. And this line… this Headship… it is available to all dreamers and all who come to the Table, come clean, come Handily remade as the Hopeful, furtively Engaged in the land.

Thus to the weasel words and backing-downs: we never Integrate such weaselly reasoning or accommodating language into our Gestalt. Some lines of reasoning: they sound fit and in tune with the hour, but are actually dastardly Concessions to an enemy. Our Gospel, on the other hand, tunes up and reworks in Drastically Attitudinal and Extravagant seemingly-insane manner, the Man and Woman for the hour. We become Strangely accommodated because our language was strangely Dream State, waking dreams, the little comments or parables that drift in and out of Automatic Writing or what we think of whilst laying down for a tidy nap.

But that is half the story: God is no dreamer without activity. God has punctured the very fabric of Life in Actionable and Active Community, with His strange work, His strange days, His Invite no longer to fascinate with Rank and Military Honorariums, but with Gentler comments that the Military Mind is curating, is harboring, is holding in secret internal Formation, a sensitive matter: Christ’s life for our sins. A sensitive matter: Christ the friend of sinners even if the entire rigamarole of He Died on a Cross, begs off a bit, asks for some breathing room whilst we just get acquainted for now with Christ the friend of sinners.

Hard-pressed Truths, then come in and out of focus, because we Do laud the life on the line, sacrificial service, of our Christs and our preachers, of our Believers generally who, rather than spilling the beans and rambling on in panicky response to any Query, to any Job Offer, to any Intervention, we go instead rarely and decidedly Calm and Measured, one Token Bargaining point after another. We go mum, as if we had the self-composure and self-confidence to sit out the intervention’s oppression and glaring spot in the light of day.

We never integrate the weaselly fake kumbayah moments, as if we needed to ameliorate the Gospel for our hearers, or say cliche and rote things about it all. Christ is Radical. We hold this truth in our heart of hearts. Christ whether spilling the beans or going mum, is Engaging certain of those who did the intervention, around the fact: to Believe is not obvious, not a Given, that some will “Like” Jesus and others will demure or plead they have some bank account savings to attend to. That is, Religion is no walk in the park as if all Natural, Innately obvious. Some will get it, others will not. The line we draw, in the sand, is a line of strange Peace in the inner man, inner woman, and outward Exuberance-turned-militant Strategy and ecstasy. We fight in ecstasy, as a second wave of the Spirit, our first wave being the Calm Agentic Piloting spirit of Peace. We fight intrinsically Calm on the level that most matters. We fight innately, intrinsically, haphazardly, even self-sacrificially, because our Agent at the Helm, our God the Father, is weeping for us in love, weeping for us in Progression and having Made the Grade. And all time spent, is water under the bridge. We are reformed and remade as His People, on march and in line of defensive posture.