“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)

What dissipates in an hour is not the overall game, but rather the mental game. Cool steel outlook is contemporaneous to any time in history, the need always to go Soldier and go Purpose: we Fight, because we Stand Tall for our Creed. We Fight, because we have tasted the aura of defeat, and it ain’t fun. We Fight, because swords and shields are all we’ve ever in truth known.

What dissipates is that the Devil plays catch-up, turning back in the hour of battle in order to mock our Readiness, deciding to fight “Another day” in order to make us out to be shrill and bellicose. Indeed, an Enemy—a good Enemy—concedes so much to us, concedes to us the Military Prose, the Alert Stance, the Derivative Activities and Game, in order to swallow it up and go back to dissipation and curious, puzzled gaze. Why, why so focused? Why, why so Nimble? Why, why so adept?

Cool steel outlook is the Calling really to be punctilious about a Quality of Prophecy. That is, a hurt Prophetic Outlook, a compromised or abandoned, dropped or disqualified, see-me-tied-down-these-months level of Prophecy. Like a moth to a candle flame, the prophet in each of us has been Counseled by Christ to Accept infamy and persecutions.

Precisely when we’ve gone Agreeable, is when the hate percolates to the surface. They Hate that we Love. They go suicidal and murderous, trying to drag us into that game, because nothing is more offensive to our Enemy that Love. Love is patient, love is kind. Love bears no ill will nor boasts, does not envy or boast. Love… if we’ve seen one too many Hallmark cards or Holiday movies, we think the word has gone precious and flimsy, but in fact Love—true Love—is the roar of engines in our ears, is the Determination for once to Stand Tall and take the helm, to Delineate a Course of Loving Action to our “enemy”, holding them firm and down, until the patient Process is imbued. Imbuing Peace and New Frontier Mentalism. Doing all this in—following Christ—some Remove or Patient resignation as to actual Physical hegemony or embrace. Our embrace… it is cautious and non-violating but not inoffensive. It is an embrace or hand on the back or shoulder Aggressively Militant, towards the end of Imparting Love.

Thus we were taught to pray, and thus we do Listen and learn to like one another. The portal is in full swing for All who know third culture and edge of Tomorrow fringe community. Somehow it is a beautiful outcome, that the invisible border is immediately straddled, embraced, Crossed. Such a powder keg of pent up contrast is available, to Mine the gladsome slapped handshake (pose for the cameras! Nothing published yet, but oh for the history of it all!) of a Friendship or Encounter (stay stern, O participant) designed to bear fruit and win wars.

And the Fact of an Okinawa of Tomorrow, hails of bullets and hand grenades, flame throwers and soldiers buried in hiding in the earth. Already Enemy Number One seems like a giant tower flailing and swaying in the wind: a David and Goliath subtle Blow, struck right through the heart, right through the Engine of Faux Reason, right through the thoughtless and grown unthinking Mind. Such is our Encounter with Repentance, that we need no groveling but for Once to Acknowledge: Hey, I should have done this differently. Hey, can you forgive me?