“7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Co 4:7–18 ESV)

Christ’s reign is on the other side of a Journey, a Traversal, a Wilderness Walk. Fighting without, fears within, His reign came about by a punctured body, a hung frame, nailed limbs; and yet the Persistence of the Man, of His lifeblood, of His will-to-survive, overturned the evil machinations of both Rome and the Judaism of the time. We, too, are to Self-Discover in the blank stare a thousand yards long, or in pacing, or in a random page opened in our bible, that God is the One in whom all things work together for Good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose

Created Order includes this flexibility, that God is no lord of human frailty but as our Designer and Creator His sinews are Strong, His tendons are war-honed, His limbs are tenacious. And to fall… yes to Fall into His arms is the first step of a “God got me by the scruff of the neck” testimony. We fear not to Fall into the arms of One so capable and able, One so indisputably, Manifestly Strong and Superior, One who, “If I were hungry I would not tell you”. Yet too we feel Him push us out of the nest, to test our baby wings, to go kerplop a few times to the grassy forest floor, because after all, “you needed me yes some one time ago, but this time you got this…” You got it all on your own, just in the blanket umbrella Knowledge that God is for you in ways beyond even your own self-justifications and explaining away tactics for approaching errors and foibles and trauma and weakness and sin. God senses it even more urgently the Need for a sin-bearing Sacrifice, such that, “At the right time, while we were yet sinners, Christ Died for us”.

And the armies are arrayed up in distant lands, and the phone lines are a frontline on the homeland. Each would-be soldier is called to Prophecy and to Invent ways to hem up the evil spirit while graciously Enabling, looking the other way when we get persnickety and accusatory, and making Manifest the right of God’s people to work the vineyard, to celebrate the Sabbath, to heal the debtors and forgive the debts.

Planes roar overhead and calm pat-pat-pat of joggers surround the Base Camp and Summit Attained Camp. We are Always On Call and Always going a bit deeper than quite verbalized, our prayer for the wayfaring Soldier who scout’s honor is legit and is the Real Deal Holyfield. We are For Real. We are Called and Needed. Yes, to be needed is one of the greatest gifts, as is to be appreciated. We have these truths in glass jars as self-evident portions of the Manna that God has decreed be our act of Remembrance. Even the handkerchiefs and napkins that the Apostle Paul touched, had power to heal those who touched them. We are Called to a feisty Denouement, Engagement, Playing-Out, as our soteriology—who and why and how we are saved—dictates plain Intervention in every fullest sense of military Intervention, Christ makes in our lives. Like a bat out of hell, like a buzzing hornet most angry, like a slap-dash Antagonist of Sin most Ready, we are coached and intervened-upon and heads lifted High we are Required this hour to give a verbal, ad hoc, improv Testimony: that our frontline soldiers have the same task of This Day choosing whom you will follow, whether Baal and his agents, or Christ Jesus and His.