2024-12-12 A Meditation on What is Looming

“9 Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.” (2 Cor 9:1-5 ESV)

Standard fare. Expected outcome. Looming horizon. The submission unto Jesus gives and takes, and as we motor along, our legitimacy comes not from ourselves but from a mystery and innocence as to our own prerogative. In Him. Our prerogative in Him. Therefore that looming day when we shall ultimately face our Maker, encounter holy Fear, come up for air and feel Heaviness: this day is already here, and the Tomorrow Promise is already ours to live in to.

We were of that cohort who ventured along for the most part, but were we ultimately made over as those dressed down, put in our place, reprimanded, or was our Ticket of Innocence already punched? Were we alighting upon a Headstrong braving of the day wherein—Jesus already Found—we are bracing for the day all and completely on our own. In quotes, “on our own”? For we have Him: we have the deep reassurance that, should any talking points come up as to our own Submission, our Suitability, our good Behavior, that we emerge no longer scathed but previously perhaps wounded, and Now and Today Already made over. We are after all those Innocents who need not Cower, need not over-apologize, need not try to make ourselves any more Perfect than we already are: headstrong, braving the day, game-face about whatever Tomorrow brings, Certain and Reassured that our mission is for Christ, and we are the first to know, whispering in our ear as a Holy Spirit does, that our perverse desire for more Judgment, for Earning our Keep: this we must allow has already scarred us and shaped and touched us, but that Today we are alert and readied up for a luscious, plenteous, giving and receiving Beautiful outlay.

We are ready Today for all that shall one day come, the fright of “What if my holy zeal is bogged down?” What of all the things that could occur, and we finding ourselves ship-shape nonetheless: it is a miraculous walk on water the likes of which we wonder, what of that prophetic experience of a Zechariah, who went mum upon being visited by the angel (Luke 1:18ff)? Will this lie in our horizon, or will we already find our ticket Punched, and our duty Manifest: our litany Rampant, our qualifications Overarching? Do we “owe” anything more, submission-wise? Do we “anticipate” anything more confusion-wise? Is our holy wealth stored up, able to cushion any and all frightful zones? That we are accustomed and shaped around a zeal Holy and Inner and Replicant? So we stop trying to be “perfect” and “obsessive” and frightened about the downgrading potential, and know this: He shall lead us, not making fools of us, except that it is a foolish thing to Love Jesus. We shall Love, because of an appreciation and inclination to hear Him command and Authorize. Only Him. We love His seniority and make jokes among our peers as to His rampant Action. He Acts. We receive and feel the air of the mild-mannered Potency. We feel the Invite to let our own caution do the disciplining, but as for we and Him, the call is to Come Up Here! Come up, and see! See the many things we have forgotten, but only if that serves to remind us: debts have already been Paid. Service is already Called for. We already did this once or twice before, and only forget our own good deeds. Some good deeds, indeed. And we shall overcome in the Name, that says be happy and cozy in the Embrace that says it is already Past, the judgment day, at least in an early form. We are not coasting: if we want to punish our bodies, so be it. But the voracious appetite to Serve, is not lost on we meek servants. We Serve, and we are lauded precisely because we are Zero-Guilt agents of the Crown.