2024-07-25 A Meditation on Waking Up

“8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (Rom 13:8-11 ESV)

A person’s repose—it is almost comical—can be utterly deluded. It can also be utterly wise, we might call it Radical: to know of, to abide near, to care for, to pray upon, strange visions of abundant Life upon Life. Hope upon Hope. Courage upon Courage. The deluded soul knows only of a strange “otherness”, little wise about what it consists of… and such as these, God loves as well, giving each a cubby-hole or mild delusion such that something Peaceful makes sense, some Rationality appeals; such is the love and patience of our God.

And we, too, were doing well until came the broader picture, the Encounter with another tribe, the other Half, the plain composure and applicability of a work ethic now ridiculed and pushed downwards, sat upon and scoffed at, because of that Other Half that is scarcely understood.

All this to say, as soldiers and as servants of the Godhead, we allow only that reassurance that is endowed upon us, that reassurance God has not forgotten: His Son, alone on His Cross, quickly swept under the rug of death and absence and forgottenness and plain faux-remedy of the Other Half’s frustration. So too the simpler Callings, to be Blessed folk because of things we need not enumerate nor congratulate ourselves for: our Service, our Duty, our Moral Courage and at times Outrage, our Woundedness-become-advantage, become-quality, become-focal-point.

We allow only that reassurance that pities not condemns any “out there” who may be under a severe delusion. For, we are witnesses and partakers of a life on that proverbial working person’s hearthstone, that—perhaps it stands not a chance in the big leagues—is nonetheless a life Dutiful and Familial, Oriented-properly around baseless Wonder and Awe: we are hopeful with only those slim pickings that seem unreasonable: who and how do you dare have hope, it is asked. Who and in whose Name do you Believe: we are Blessed souls of Blessed Estate.

Then to the getting-around-to-it: that curmudgeonly response is no laughing matter or occasion for witty scoffing or rejoinders: people’s lives are on the line, their salvation in the exchange, their Principles as taught to the children, up for grabs. We enjoyed some insane Peace, for a season, in a cocoon, only today to see something we’ve long Trained For, to be strong under pressure and bringing to mind under oppression and heralding throughout the tyranny, God is for us, He we dare say never once backed down, never gave in to the pressures to turn away from, to dismiss, to discount, to sell short. This is our Assurance, that the treat, the special time offered, the collegiality, fellowship, or social “date” between two or more souls, is ours to Relish and Appreciate until circumstances start to make it all impossible. The war upon us. The concerns sharp and a bleeding edge found. The worries hurting and wounding. The sharp tongue or brazen limitations, stark, real, and patiently Cause to remember our childhood training as Survivors, staring down Death and possessed of Certain commitment to the Cause. So that the Godhead Himself may teach us something of Courage, and of sticking up for the Outcast and Poverty-Stricken. Something of earnest Desire for that fellowship, because of this we are sure: God is already wide awake, even as the poorer spiritual concerns suddenly arise in fits and starts, opposing, questioning, intervening, sleepwalking, mildly doing great in fact damage. All this is ours to meditate upon, but ours to willingly accept: all are somehow deluded about a few things, and we have Today Awoken out of that Delusion to see how fragile is our sense of Righteous days spent, of Lifestyle, of haunting Dreams about improper natures and proper natures; we give thanks for the Clear Sailing of another day, aware too of that fraught Other, that threatens and looms on the horizon.