“2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. 5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. 8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. 14 For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. 15 And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.” (2 Co 7:2–16 ESV)

Teamwork is elusive and brings to bear that we are strapped in, we find ourselves on the moonshot, without foreplanning or any “Rational” sense that the committees and pacts would without nervous energy Boldly Align and Team Up. Those committees, those pacts and High Tables: going Far is incorporated with going Dreamy. We have Done the Duties to such an extent that we are limber and nimble, Capable of seeing Value in Added Phenoms. Capable of opening the gates broad, wide, or of hunkering down and closing ranks.

Teamwork is strangely Convicting when internally we feel all is Judgment and Cynicism towards others. It is us who are Cold, perhaps. It is our own Gestalt that is Cynical, perhaps. It is a Call finally and for all time to murmur into the silence that God is Good, that We His People are honorific of the Father and special towards the Divine Godhead Above. We are in stark antithesis with a cagey Enemy, starkly Opposed yet limber and nimble this Hour to Thrive and to shape and reform, reshape and Strike A Pose: dastardly Foe, we got you this time around!

Because to some, the sadness of missed Encounters, is no sweat, back to the books and the Labors as if All were divinely Called to some Expression of Hard Sweat-of-the-Brow labor. Others… can we surmise? Others have a calling to hours of time in reverie or Prayer. Still others pray through their Labors: such we all would like to Be, divinely Anointed to Labor, but in so doing to Pray.

The Latter Age is not simply the lack of loved ones who have gone On to Heaven, but it is an Invite to be postured and Present in the Now, not screaming against the hounds of Hell as they threaten early demise or reluctancy to Go Aged. No, we are always and everywhere Able and Aged Just Right, and acting on Wild-Eyed heard Prophecies and Situations. We are Post-Pleasure (the pleasure of loving company) and Central in the Milieu called Wartime Antics, Negotiations, Stratagems, and Rebuttals. We are no longer mourning times a-wasted, but are heads-down Plugging Away in a strangely discomfited Posture: we are strangely Pained, and feel Unable to Cope, yet are Front and Center also steering, veering, careening through the stratosphere unto New Horizons and Pleasant Times sublime.

To be Pleasing to the Father is to be Grateful for the chastisement, perhaps, but also to hold Front-and-Center that God sees only us vis-a-vis the Pain, only vis-a-vis the foot-washing, only vis-a-vis the Unforgiven fright zones. To that, He is most Endearing and sees us as Christian, too, as needful, as penitential, as Broken. The passion for Upward Spiraling Call, is a passion for the Excitement of Doing Battle met with the sobriety of Doing Religion: we careen about the stratosphere but in all things are Studious and Learning as to right Religion. The Foe only educates us as to our finitude. As to our cynical downward trend-lines. We are cynical unto our judgment of others; we look for occasion to finger-point; yet we go gosh and gaping at the notion God is in that more Humble gesture, in that Peaceful quiet that invites all manner of cynical Attack and Rebuttal: we hate on His peace, sometimes. And we Rediscover ourselves in the light of going Confessional, going Apologetic, going House-Cleaning. This is no remark on a person near to us, but is a Comment on a Spirit present, available to all who gather. And we rest Complete and Reassured that our talk becomes Inspired by Him rather than by nervous energies or misspoken blessings. It was all Correctly Executed, after all. And more, each generation of Man is distinct and has its own highs and lows. If we seem more “sane” than others, again that is the cynicism talking, but the mystical Energies of said “others” is never to be forgotten, never discounted, never overlooked. Because they were cautious where we were Bold; they were conservative where we were outlandishly liberal; they were penny-pinching where we were getting-down-to-business.