“6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. 3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. 5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!” 7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. 12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”” (Re 6:1–17 ESV)

Buckled in for the space ride, the world teeters and wild fluctuations see eras ended and new ones begun, times around here they are a-changing. To some the “towers fall” (Isa 30:25) as a preamble to utter carpet-bombed New Reality, that these losses are but a pittance, a drop in the bucket of what is to come. And to others, the egalitarian utopian freedom-exercising Liberal Pundit in a modern city… their coffeeshops and comedy clubs, their barrooms and social functions, these are engaged upon always with the Lost Soldier in mind.

Always with the seeded Impetus to Thrive, to Engage, to Evangelize, to Prove the Mettle Of, of a Safe Harbor and Sanctuary Faith, one with tendons and claws as necessitated to Tackle the Coming Judgment Days. To teach the bearer—for we are Humanists, no judges of a man’s religion, a woman’s religion, but Objective-Based: will it save the soul, will it defend the spirit, will it preserve the Innocence, of a Created-In-His-Image Doctrine?

And to the seeded impetus to levy itself upon the seedbed as rained upon, the present rains, the latter rains, as strange Third Culture, kids of missionaries in foreign third-world (two-thirds world) places, immigrants and those seeking an Education, simply the Purveyors of fineries and a free society insofar as the interbellum years are upon us Right Now. No fears, therefore, of a detainment or of a Bleary-Eyed Frontline recruitment drive: no, the friends, they are on the Doorstep and Ready: plug in, tune in, latch in, and strap in to the rocket ship, the space ship, the portal and the Fact, so many will not see Tomorrow, we are Edge of Tomorrow; and in the memory… not of numbers lost but of Thriving Metropolises turned ghost towns, of inner Fabrics, wherein society Intended and Necessitated Each Citizen’s role in the community to carry on, until the deaths began, spiritual or literal: people addicted to their pet habits, people sleepwalking and vaguely accusing some Mythological Entity but really, accusing their brethren, of wrongdoing, the “Apple” in the Garden of saying, “so-and-so pursues people, tell him or her to back off”, the draw in then sue for being the instigator of the relationship, and let’s face it, ten times more tragic when that relationship is in the sensitive male-female mold. We need dating cleaned up and murmured, prayerfully murmured over.

Because we are a dying breed, and Jesus’ Cross shows us the fact of a Ghostly, Ghastly even, Gosh-Darn Beautiful aura as beheld upon Christ’s dying frame, on that Cross: His Aura the gift to the centuries to follow, though He and most of His disciples died the death of martyrs. Died at the hands, into the hands submitted, of the Romans, of the punchy Jews who—let’s face it—we hate them, right? For killing Christ? Or is that zero about ethnicity and entirely about their role as the religionistas, as “every man” and person as complicit in the same sin of Killing Christ?

Because we are gone sanguine, unexcitable, calm and purposeful, listening and reacting in measured tones, in tit-for-tat, with Good Assessment of the relative scale of things. And the enemy, he or she tempts us, and we are Post-Covetous-Desire. We literally no longer covet the Rolls Royce or the fashionable pad. Until we do. Until something irks us that so-and-so, we’re a little bit jealous, of their “Make”, of their “Top Dog” status, of the fact all wars are easily surrendered like Christ surrendered His, in the Name of Christianity and Godly-Inspiration, until that Surrender means a Cross for us. Then, and then indeed, we resent the God-given hour of the day. We resent the Judgment. We go persnickety and resentful. But we pray, Lord lift this sin and this burden from me. And He does.