Soul Enticed III: Lagniappe Essays

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la·gniappe

 (lăn′yəp, lăn-yăp′)

n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi

1. A small gift presented by a storeowner to a customer with the customer's purchase.

2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit.

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Word History: "We picked up an excellent word—a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice, limber, expressive, handy word-'lagniappe'.... It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a 'baker's dozen.' It is something thrown in gratis, for good measure." In this passage from his memoir Life on the Mississippi (1883), Mark Twain calls his readers' attention to an American regionalism that he thinks deserves to be better known, lagniappe. The story of lagniappe begins in South America: it ultimately comes from the word yapay, "to give more," in Quechua, the language of the rulers of the Inca Empire. The Quechua word was borrowed into Spanish as a noun spelled either llapa or ñapa, meaning "bonus, a little something extra added as a gift," and the word then spread throughout the Spanish of the Western Hemisphere. Eventually, the Spanish phrase la ñapa, meaning "the gift," entered the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans, where the whole phrase came to be thought of as a single word and acquired the French spelling lagniappe. The word was then borrowed into the English of the region. Lagniappe continues to be used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean "an extra or unexpected gift or benefit."

—https://www.thefreedictionary.com/lagniappe

Once we understand that we have been bamboozled by The System and begin reading the Bible to discover the truth proffered by its integrated message system—then what?  

How do we realign our lives, in both a  socio-political and spiritual sense, to engender the Christ-like values intrinsic to our Western heritage? 

Does evolution toward greater complexity in our extra-Biblical thinking and pursuits aid the richness of our Christian spiritual life? 

This third installment in the Soul Enticed series weighs and considers such questions, made all the more pressing by the “Great Debility” that is currently upon us.

                                                                       

From simple faith and practicing Christian virtues, to esoteric mastery and theorizing about ETs, quantum physics, dark matter, and living in a digital simulation, humans try to make sense of this world. 

How about you? Where do you stand? How are you free? Just what is a human being anyway? 

                      

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In this concluding installment of the Soul Enticed trilogy the emphasis is on the rugged individualism of the 21st century Christian; on the being and doing of what Jesus Christ exhorts and expects of human beings, based upon His modeling and articulation of virtue. As such it is a rediscovering of our Western (Christian and Judaic) roots as explicated in that integrated message system, the Holy Bible. 

Surprisingly for today’s “spiritual elites,” reading, studying, and apprehending Biblical wisdom turns out to be the most esoteric of undertakings. Prayer and fasting, having sorrow for sin, and asking for God’s grace via the Holy Spirit—all of these actions fortify faith and guide our souls to truth. 

At the same time we develop a Christ-like backbone that allows our character and integrity—values of strength in goodness—to shine through. We get more adept at piercing the veils of Deep State fakery, at standing up to overt Satanic evil that has made societal inroads via the cultural Marxist agenda. 

Best of all we discover real love, God’s Agape love, as that which breathes life into our relationships. Having the courage and curiosity to explore every worthy speculation and endeavor, e.g., in the fields of consciousness research and cutting-edge discoveries in physics (while reflecting on the stories and experiences of our lives) we learn to enrich our Christian selves through greater complexity. 

We can share this spirituality with others by working together on “weird tasks,” both small and large. Bro. Jack's proposal of spreading "weird task ministries" may just help to build not only the City of God in our time but a World steeped in a Christ-consciousness of caring and affection capable of miraculous healing through the redemptive power of soul. 

Bro. Jack Suss, O4B, is a catholic believer in Christ’s mystical Church. His weird task ministry extols the power of soul, love, faith, contrition, grace, goodness, redemption and work, while promoting Bible literacy.