Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

• Genesis 3:4-5

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

• Romans 3:21-24

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Romans 6:23

If you are reading this and hoping that I will talk glowingly about the massive proliferation of pronouns of late and how everyone’s chosen pronouns are important, you might as well stop reading.

My wife had a family member who, after going to therapy, decided to identify as non-binary.  My wife said that she would use the preferred pronouns of they and them, but she was having signs of the early onset of dementia.  Forgive her if she makes a mistake.  The family member said that they would never ever speak to each other again.  The pronouns were more important than that.  And my wife died three years later, having never again heard this person’s voice.

I thought it the sleeziest thing to ever say when the mistake on my wife’s part would stem from a diagnosed disease.  My wife had gotten in the car after shopping and forgot where she was and how to get home.  She started driving in circles and finally something looked familiar.  Then more things looked familiar and she made it home, two or three times like that before she told me and I never let her drive alone after she told me.  Time with her was more precious than anything else that I could do with my time.

One of the things I drove her to was her neurologist appointments.  She would be asked who the president of the United States was, and she could not remember.  She could not remember what month it was, the day of the month or the day of the week.  As medication began to calm her nerves, she got better at those things, but do not give her five words to remember, start a conversation, and then stop and ask her for the words.  She might answer, “I think one was a color.”  Yes, she had cognitive issues, and they were duly diagnosed.

So, if those invented pronouns, invented by people who were playing god, are not important, then what pronouns are?

Oh, if you did not know, I heard an American advocate for Trans rights say that Trans was life itself and when you change yourself to what you wanted, Trans made you god.  Now, I know why it has caught on.  Nothing has changed since Adam and Eve, only the window dressing.

So, which pronouns?  Let me tell a true story.

I have done it many times.  I will have an earworm and I will sing the bits of the song that I know and ooh, aah, or hum the parts that I don’t.

But on some rare occasions, I will mix up the pronouns and get things so jumbled that I am singing something that borders on heresy or worse.

Here is a recording from a DvD that honors the composer, Dottie Rambo.  The Gaither Homecoming Crowd is singing He Looked Beyond My faults and Saw My Needs.  The tune for the song is Londonderry Air, also used in Danny Boy.  I like the tune, but Dottie Rambo’s words are powerful.

Yes, as I was singing the song from memory, at least this verse above, I got my pronouns mixed up, just once.  I stopped.  I cried.  Lord, please no.  What I just sang is my worst problem.

I had sung, “I looked beyond my faults and saw my needs.”

Is that not our biggest problem?  We know God gives great gifts.  We do not think we are that bad.  We might even think we are pretty good.  We can easily look beyond our faults.  And we always see our needs.  In fact, we look beyond our needs and see our wants.

Oh, Lord, please forgive me for getting that pronoun wrong.  I rely on Your Mercy and Grace each day that I draw breath.  I have so many faults.  I am a chief among sinners.  And You looked beyond that.  You chose me, a person unworthy of Your presence.  And You have graciously met my needs and beyond.  Again, please forgive me.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.