Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her.

• Numbers 30:3-5

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

• Colossians 3:1-4

In these two Scriptures, the use of the word “living” in the first Scripture is technically “residing.”  But to live as Paul says to the Colossians is truly living.

After I cried my eyes out at the military honors, being given my wife’s casket flag, I was roaming the room at the dinner trying to thank as many people as possible for coming.  I answered people’s questions about the photos in the PowerPoint presentation.  And for the most part, it was all laughter.

Then one sister-in-law and her husband approached.  They said that their flight did not leave until eleven that night.  They refused to go through the tunnels or around the tunnels.  They had done that and they did not like the traffic jams.  So, what is fun to do around this area?

My mind went totally blank.  I could have said that there was a trolley museum between Washington, PA and Houston, PA.  The fast food restaurant at the next exit south of the church had display cases for Bobby Vinton, Perry Como, and another local group (a quartet, but I cannot remember the name).  In fact, the fast food place was the only thing on Bobby Vinton Drive.  And they might have to hunt for them, but there were plenty of covered bridges for photo opportunities.  And Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania was an easy drive from the church.  Quaint shops, but the “scenery” was breathtaking.

And you can reach the overlook from Mount Washington to view the city of Pittsburgh without going through the tunnel.  That is beautiful during the day and at night.

All of that came to mind the next day.  Maybe I was still in grief.  It had been a busy day and my brain was fried, but I sat at a table and nearly sobbed.  My wife and I had lived in the same house in a small town outside Pittsburgh, PA for 27 years, the longest either of us had lived at any one residence.

But had we lived there or had we merely resided there?  That question slapped me across the face.

Maybe I am being too hard on myself, but when we played tour guide, we took people to the Strip District, we visited the gardens, we went to the museums or a ball game, but all required going through the tunnels or around Mount Washington and over several bridges.  The downtown area had a variety of theaters with live performances.

Or we took them on the Frank Lloyd Wright tour, two mansions in the Laurel Highlands designed by the great architect, and of course we took in Scenery Hill and Fort Necessity (for the history buffs).  Oddly, we’d drive by the ski lodge without hardly mentioning it.

But the trip to those places would take too long.

Yet, when you look at the Apostle Paul’s definition of really living, we did a lot of that, and we could do all that without ever leaving our house.

So what if we never made it to the Andy Warhol Museum.  I doubt if a conversation in Heaven would ever include the topic.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.