Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

• Hebrews 12:1-2

“If you have raced with men on foot
    and they have worn you out,
    how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
    how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?

• Jeremiah 12:5

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

• Genesis 2:2-3

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

• 2 Timothy 2:7

“Is time passing faster or am I just getting older? Can this really be the last hurrah of the summer? School can’t actually be starting already, can it? I feel like swapping my calendar for a stopwatch.
“It’s like watching one of those Formula One car races where a television camera is mounted inside one of the cars and periodically the producer switches to that camera, giving viewers an idea of how life looks as it blows by at 200-plus miles per hour. Virtually everything is a blur. I have no trouble identifying with the driver who has all he can do to stay his course, maneuver the curves, and steer clear of all the other four-wheel missiles only inches away.
“Today I have decided to slow down long enough to stop the blur and look. Not just to look, but to see. As Yogi Berra once said, ‘You can observe a lot just by watching.’
“Sometimes it helps to open life’s door slowly and secretively take a long gaze inside. On other occasions, it’s better to jerk it open unannounced, slam on the light, and get a quick read. I’ve been doing the latter today, and I don’t like what I see. My sudden glance has flushed out all sorts of critters.”

• Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch (Devotion for week 36, Monday)

Rev. Swindoll follows this introduction with all the things that make life busy, many of them unnecessary.

I have necessary things that make life busy.  My wife has dialysis three times each week.  We have church on Sunday.  That gives us three days to squeeze in groceries, pharmacy, doctor visits, doctor required tests, and laundry. Now that laundry involves a trip to the laundromat, that suddenly becomes significant. Some days are filled with phone calls setting up appointments for other days.

And in between those distractions, I write ten scheduled posts each week and my mind runs ninety to nothing with ideas for short stories.  And the short stories have tended to leave a loose thread lately, which means the next story is percolating before I finish the last one – although, I do what story-writing masters say never to do on occasion, and that is that I paint myself into a corner.

But my office chair that I had been using for maybe ten years or more broke the other day.  I had to improvise and add cushions to a folding metal chair.  There was no place to rest my weary head between thoughts.

I found myself going to the recliner in the living room.  If the television was not off, I muted it.  I had to rest.  Muscles that had never hurt before were now hurting due to the lack of support here and there.

And I learned something from my moments of resting.  Yes, I am prone to take power naps.  But, no, I found that my mind was clearer upon my return.

I learned that I could get more done while taking time away from the keyboard to rest.

When you cannot focus because the blur is going by too quickly, slow down.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.