Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

• Titus 2:11-14

“Light of the world
Hope for all man
You never let me down
I can’t believe You call me Your friend
It’s turned my whole life around
But still it’s hard to let go of the wheel
No one ever showed how

<Refrain>
Maybe this time You can take the lead
And I won’t try to pull You by the sleeve
Because every time I think that I know better I lose my way
So God, what You wanna do today?

You are the King of Heaven and earth
All of creation bows
I give You my heart for all that it’s worth
I’m at Your service now
But I always want to guess just what You need
Trying to honor my vow
<Refrain>

Maybe we will spend the hours just being still
And knowing You are God
You are God
Every time I think that I know better I lose my way
Don’t let me lose my way”

• Thomas Tawgs Salter & Joel Andrew Parisien, Today

We are preparing to ship our old car to Tennessee.  With two interviews this week, the week of writing this, and with God’s blessing, our daughter-in-law will have a job, and she will be driving our old car to work by the time anyone reads this.

Update: After multiple attempts to ship the car, it is finally in Tennessee. Our daughter-in-law is still interviewing – after all, she is interviewing lawyers and they have their tedious policies and procedures to go through.

But to be nice, I went through the car and cleaned out the junk.  No, I did not detail the car inside and out, but the ten years of oil change receipts and old CDs are out of the glove compartment.  One of those CDs was an old Newworldson CD, Rebel Transmission.  Of course, in typical “me” fashion, I got the CD because of the slow song on the CD, as my wife put it, the “whiney” song, Today.

When we had XM radio, my wife listened to Christian Contemporary and I listened to Big Band and Swing.  We both had other channels, like Jazz, Easy Listening, and “Soundscapes.” One day, she had the car previously and a contemporary Christian song that I liked was playing when I started the car, so I did not change channels.  The next song was Today.  I was driving to work.  It was the perfect time of the day to ask, “God, what do you want to do today?”  The song hit me like a ton of bricks, as the saying goes.  I nearly had to pull over and park.  I was shaking.  Every part of the song touched my heart.  I screw up.  I take the wheel, too often.  I tug at God’s sleeve with my “I wanna do this or I wanna have that.”  At that point, while still employed fulltime, I was begging God to reveal His plan for my life.  It took being laid off a few years later and out of work for the noise inside my head to subside for me to hear God’s voice, the noise due to screwing up and often trying to guess what God wanted me to do rather than listening to Him.

It would take me a few more years before I heard that Voice and knew what God wanted me to do, at least, the big picture.  And now, having forgotten about the song, I often ask that question in one way or another.  Just for … Today.

“God, what do You want to do … today?”

Did you notice?  The question is not asking God to bless what we want to do.  You know.  “God, I am doing this today whether You like the idea or not, so please place Your blessing on it.”  The question is not asking God what we should do.  “God, what do you want me to do today?”  The question is asking God what He wants to do, and then we go along for the ride.

Some people that may wish to write scathing critical comments about my posts – rarely ever done, but there may be those out there…  They might complain that my posts often start with one idea and then the writing happens, and I end up somewhere else, somewhere I never expected.  I have gone back on occasion to at least change the title – too often to count.  I have more rarely gone back to change the Scripture.  Why more rarely?  Because many times, I start writing (either typing or thinking through what I will type in my head) and then I will research the Scriptures, and the Scripture that I find trumps what I was thinking about, and I basically rewrite what I had written to match the Scripture.  So, for those that cannot follow the haphazard jumping from one rabbit hole to another, I apologize.  I asked God what He wanted to do today and then started typing and it made sense to me – at that moment.

And it is so freeing to write like that.  When I wrote technical documents and technical textbooks for a living, I had to color between the lines with little to no imagination at times, dot every “i” and cross every “t”.  I love the concept of simply writing.

But getting back to the old CD, it is quite amusing.  If I had bought the CD first, instead of buying it because of one song on it, my favorite song may have been Homeless Child.  It has a Big Band and Swing sound.  And the words speak to me as well.  The chorus is:

“I was a homeless child before You took me in
Your comforts are beyond imagination
I was a runaway but now I’m here to stay
Nothing can keep me from Your sweet salvation”

• Mark Rogers, Joel Parisien, Rich Moore, Homeless Child

Maybe I should clean out the car more often.

But I praise the Lord for that one day when I asked what He wanted to do today, and He said, “I want to see what treasures you have hidden in the glove compartment of your old car.”

God already knew what I would find, but I had forgotten.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.