“45 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: 2  “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, 3  I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. 4  For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. 5  I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6  that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7  I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:1-7 ESV)

The faith that says I will go with you, before you, beside you: it recalls a repeating enigma, exemplar, modicum of history, the ways our realities and experiences change. One minute, calmly holed up in our rooms; another moment living on the cusp of a new era. One minute working away at a task; another moment stunned at just how forthright or anticipatory such a task proves to be. One minute looking around for projects; another moment neck-deep in a trip crossing, a river forged, a friendship in earnest arranged.

And to the unspoken apologies, to the unspoken invitations, to the myriad facts of Honesty on Display, ways we learn to trust certain folks as in identify friend or foe, and ways we learn to observe others, as demonstrating a sincere unplanned affection or togetherness. Room to roam, but all images under consideration, that we not one-up each other or give reason to be jealous. That all of us wallow in the Presence of others, and in all that such presence can bring about: that we are original sinners from the get-go, and though in lockstep with fellow celibates we are all the more tempted: that beauty suddenly combats and appears on the street corner, in equal measure to our Call to station and fight, to forego and rebuke, ourselves and our attention span as compromised for one educational moment before outright War.

I will go with you, it is said, as lover meets lover and all is of a sudden seen through the lens of belonging in fellowship. Of a timeline extensive, extending late into the night while a Paul speaks or a child listens, as in Acts. We brook nothing that tempts, only that at the same moment all things turn voluptuous and External, so Beauteous and Handsome as to be sign and portent, professional efforts as over and against an enemies operation called Intelligence. Counter-intelligence, to continue to Live into the beauty and into the all-in-this-together sense of Humanity. That good folks literally reside across continents somehow met in the hour, because of a rogue actor hidden in the myriad global pressure points. And we, all of us Certain of our service being all-in, all-things, all-trust, all-free-fall. The non-sexist, non-racist, non-classist, forged way ahead, that everyone has their peculiar Giftings, Accent, Capacity, Leadership, to all peoples to all races to all nations.