Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
“What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?” the king asked.
“Nothing has been done for him,” his attendants answered.
The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him.
His attendants answered, “Haman is standing in the court.”
“Bring him in,” the king ordered.

• Esther 6:1-5

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.

• Isaiah 58:9-10

This is what the Lord says:
“As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
they proclaim ‘peace’
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.
Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
    and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
    and the day will go dark for them.

• Micah 3:5-6

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

• 1 John 2:7-11

The first Scripture talks of king Xerxes being unable to sleep.  It must have been God giving him insomnia.  He thinks of Mordecai and how Mordecai had not been rewarded.  Haman was the prime minister for Xerxes, and he hated Mordecai.  So, when Haman is asked to get Mordecai and reward him, all the dominoes start to fall into place.  Esther tells the king of Haman’s treachery and Haman is hung on the pole instead of Mordecai and the Jews are saved from being annihilated.  But this stack of dominoes that had to fall just right started with insomnia and a king who could not sleep in the middle of the night.

The other three Scriptures refer to darkness and light.  While some are plunged into darkness, those who love the Lord will be given Light.

That leads to my tale of woe last night, the night before I wrote this.  I went to bed early and planned to sleep late.  I was falling behind on my sleep, and I have not recovered from when my wife was in the hospital a few weeks ago.  According to my watch, I ended up with eleven hours of sleep, only four of it restful sleep, stretched over twelve and a half hours.  It is the first time that my watch had ever recorded three different sessions of sleep in a single night.  If you are only awake for 5-10 minutes, it does not count that as an extra session.  I often awake 2-3 times each night.  But this was noteworthy.

But last night, when I wanted to get a lot of restful sleep, I had a variety of problems.  I keep my left hand, that has the ulna rubbing against the radius, in a brace at night.  I have twisted it as I toss and turn and aggravated the tendons and meniscus.  The wrist brace prevents that, but the hand is more like a club for doing anything useful.  I awoke about 3:30am, and I had what felt like an irritable bowel problem – but I had stayed on my diet the day before.  My lower bowel was in pain, almost like a cramp.  My neck and lower back were also hurting.  I knew that if I were to go to the bathroom, I would have to take off the wrist brace.  When I did so, it was as if an elephant had stepped on my hand and shattered every bone.  It was mind-numbing pain.  That was followed by the hand going numb.  Not really, but it felt like it was shot with Novocain, the entire hand.  My hand had feeling when I touched something, but I could not move the hand or the wrist.  As the tingling diminished, I tried to make a fist, but the fist looked like me holding a screwdriver.  In the Isaiah Scripture above, I would not have been able to point a finger at anyone.  Within 5-10 minutes, the irritable bowel issue seemed to disappear.  I was back in bed and my left hand was working again.  But now, I was having a hard time finding a comfortable position for sleep.  After a little more sleep, I awoke about dawn, but I was determined to get more sleep. Over the next three hours, I got another thirty minutes of deep sleep.  In all, a normal night’s sleep, as far as restful sleep was concerned.  It just took twelve and a half hours to get it.

So, I may be seeing the surgeon to see how long I will be out of commission if I get the surgery.  I will also have to ask for a lot of church friend help.  My wife has her schedule of dialysis.  She cannot drive anymore.  At least, she does not feel comfortable driving and has not even sat behind the steering wheel of the SUV.  And I may have to see how difficult it is using the dictate function in the word processor until I get may hand out of the cast.

This is my first attempt at doing the dictate thing.  Okay, that worked pretty well, but it is weird talking to my computer.  And the computer has no idea where to place punctuation.

But then, maybe my problem last night was that I did not think of a different use of the word “light” and who the source of rest really is.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

• Matthew 11:28-30

Will I have another incident like last night?  Do I want to risk it?  But if I need the surgery, I will need a lot of help in that I am my wife’s primary care giver.

Yet, God is the great healer.  He will see us through this little problem too.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.