Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

• 1 Kings 10:1-5

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

• Mark 12:34

I just have a few questions.  Maybe these are unanswerable questions, but maybe the first one is answerable.

Why is it that when the snow comes down, they talk to someone with city works?  Of course, they are not going to pray that the snow is light, dry, and easily blows away.  No, for non-God fearing people, they always go to the human for comfort, the one that can make mistakes.  This was just an observation in the midst of other questions.

First real puzzling question:  I have seen some Botox commercials and they show you before and after photos.  Why are the before photos so much more real and beautiful than the after photos.  Sure, the after photos look like Barbie and Ken dolls, but people are meant to be people.  The commercial tag line is that it is still you, just a better you.  But better is subjective.  The before and after are both photos of someone who thinks that injecting poison into your face is going to make you look better.  That is vanity to the extreme.  One slight slip of the needle and you could die, but they would rather die than have a wrinkle and then when the Botox wears off, they look worse than they did at the beginning.

But my question is probably stemming from my subjective attitude about the two photographs.  Wrinkles, just a few, show character; they can give a sense of wisdom.  Only arrogance and superficiality produce a bad reaction to wrinkles, but then again, I think this question says more about my attitude than what the world thinks.

Another strange question: Why is it that people constantly complain about the weather?  I could extend that to complaining about everything, but let’s stick to the weather.  My platoon sergeant taught me that a troop that complained about me and my leadership style was just venting.  To the average troop (soldier), the best billet (assigned duty station) is either the one they just left or the one they are about to go to.  It is never the present one.

Odd, C. S. Lewis said that the present pain in life is bearable.  Just the pain, just this moment.  What is unbearable is to think about how long you have been in pain (the past) and not knowing how long you will have to endure the pain (the future), but right now is usually bearable.  There is great wisdom in his statement, but the way people complain, it seems to be the opposite.

Case in point, they have a drought in California.  The thing that they need is a LOT of snow.  They get tons of snow, but now the roof of the only grocery store in town caved in and they can’t drive down the mountain to where they can get food and medicine.  Of course, they could live in the valley, but no, they like the view…  Now, the water conservation people are happy.  The snow will melt slowly in the spring, but…

Nope, the rains followed the snow, melting the snow and causing flash floods and washed out roads.  You cry for years for the rains to come and then you cry that the rains come.  This is not much to joke about in that lives could be lost, but at the present no one is satisfied with the weather… period.

In our area, as soon as the temperature is below freezing for the first time, “I can’t wait until Spring!!  Boo Hoo! Woe is me!”  Then three days later, they have to turn their air conditioner back on and they are crying, “We have not had a crisp morning in weeks!!”

Odd how three days becomes “weeks.”

Here’s another unanswered question:  The folks who were snowbound in California were charging their cellphones using their cars.  If the present administration gets what they want, how do you get off the mountain?  If you have gas in your car, you can get off the mountain, but if you got home to charge your electric car just as the power went out, you are stuck.  These people sitting in the driver’s seat of their car, warming their bodies while charging their phones may be the same people who are hugging trees, writing their congressperson, and marching on Washington.  But when their comfort is challenged, they crank up the gas guzzler with no remorse.

Is that hypocrisy or someone coming to their senses?

But the one thing that never changes is God and His love for us.  Think on these things, and the weather doesn’t matter.  And maybe the westher is the only real “bad spell of weather” that matters.

Note: I mentioned in a previous recent post that computers are stupid. I mistyped “weather” hitting the adjacent “S” on the keyboard instead of the “A” and the computer had no clue about what I wanted. See! Dumb!” We were having a bad spell of weather, but nope, the computer played dumb.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.