The carnal mind cannot be content in catastrophe and blames God because it lacks the imagination to view the wrath of God as a positive sum possibility and a chance to find contentment that transcends material lusts.
Last week, same series on Spotify:
SOS Discipline - Daily Proverb and Red Letter Reader
Better to be poor than wise in your own eyes. cf Pr. 28:11
Divided loyalties are not loyalties at all. cf Mt. 6:34B
cf Sun Tzu 3.24-30
Strategy is fivefold:
1. Know your limitations.
2. Distinguish near and far, micro and macro, tactics and war.
3. Harmonize tension to leverage.
4. Seize patience as prudence.
5. Delegate trust.
The understanding of these is insight.
My first solo episode in a very, very long time:
And, Over at the Tank I Stepped Outside the Box a Bit:
From Today’s Stack:
I Didn’t Like This
Gloved fingers flexed around the little black box in my pocket.
Soon. I’d be rid of it soon. One way or another, it ended today.
But first, I needed to walk down this blind hallway. First, I needed to follow protocol and make my delivery in the Sanctum.
I took a slow breath and slid my piece out of its holster, putting one in each hand.
Clack! …ack…ack…ack…
The safety echoed like a deafening whisper in the dense silence of the bottomless mines. We never talked about where the mines came from, never asked how Xzi founded the place. Far as anyone would say, the place was ancient, and deep. The Sanctum might be a smugglers’ paradise in the middle of a hell called Earth, but it was shrouded in mystery that most of us were too eager eating to question.
Just an old cave, I told myself.
I also told myself that, No one chooses to be a thief. You’re born into it. You don’t have choice. This is the way it has to be. You have no where else to go.
One way or another, it ended today.
I took my first step forward.
A paw gripped my shoulder.
Not a hand. A paw.
I know because Case’s piece clattered to the floor as I slapped a tight grip on my assailant’s bony limb and swung forward with practiced ferocity, the weight of my body lifting the thing over me to pummel it into the ground.
Except that, that didn’t happen.
Instead, we just stood there together, me holding its wrist and yanking, then trying to shake free, then trying to turn on my assailant only to find my assailant having immobilized me without having to move an inch.
Swinging my weapon behind me to place a shot in its gut, I fell to my knees, pain raging through my shoulder beneath its iron grip. Sharp talons dug against the muscle, pinching nerves in every direction. I cried out as I fell, dropping my gun and landing on my knees.
I had prepared for everything. But I had never imagined this.
“I have been waiting for you,” a whispery rasp spoke from the darkness near my ear. “Fear nothing, now. Stand.”
The next thing I knew I was absolutely obeying him.
“There is no need for violence,” the voice said. “Not yet. Not with me.”
There was something about the words. Like gravity. They held me. Tamed me. I wanted to run. Wanted to fight. But could do nothing except stand in the blindness and listen.
There was a rustling sound, followed by a crisp click. The cavern flooded with light. Like a sword of fire in the darkness, it motioned down the hallway before pointing the beam directly into my eyes.
“Listen, now. I will free you, and not you alone.”
I grunted, squinting, and raised my hands to dim the brightness.
“Would you rather sit in the dark?” it asked. Then it laughed. “What you can know is that I’m here to help you, and that you have very little time. Follow the light. Quickly, now.”
The bright beams of the torch motioned down the unfamiliar cavern. I’d walked it often, but never seen it. Hewn rock loomed over grated metal flooring jammed on top of ancient debris. Forgotten piping, old masonry and broken tech abounded. I tried to get a look at my captor one more time, but he only shone the light in my eyes with greater precision.
“Go forward, not back,” he said.
Before I knew it I was walking in the right direction. “You’re taking me to Xzi,” I said over my shoulder. “He hired you, and whatever programming you’re using, it’s clearly worth the credits.”
“Xzi awaits you and your delivery. But he is grass in the sun. He will be swept away. Would you go with him? If the whole world shall not be overrun, then before you meet him today there is something in these lost halls that you must find. That which is hidden must always come to light. Turn left, now.”
Impossible to notice without light, a short hall broke off from the main pass, dead ending at not inconsequential vault door hinged into the rock itself.
“I speak of what you are not ready to see. But time is a weapon of the just and unjust alike, is it not? It will not open. They have tried. If only they had not given up. If only patience had endured one more time.”
Squinting at the light, then considering the door, I reached out my hand to the rounded handles. There was no visible lock, but it was stiff with age, as if it’s sole purpose was to bear dark witness to ancient times, an impassable mystery held strong by mechanical dysfunction.
I put my shoulders into it. After a terrible groan, there was a subtle and simple click. The energy of the reaction resonated through my body like shiver on a cold night. A light rush of air both stale and forgotten pressed passed us as the four-inch think frame swung open on weary hinges.
I stepped gingerly into the opening, marveling at the fine craft and contouring of the door as I passed within.
Click!
The light behind me went out.
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