Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

• Romans 12:1-8

Editor’s Note: The playing cards in the photo are from Salzburg, Austria, purchased in the late 1970s. The Kings and Queens in the deck are all members of the royal family of Austria, with the Jacks representing peoples within the empire. Showing in the Tableau are Kaiser Franz Josef (1898) and Kaiserin Elisabeth. The two Jacks are for the Bohemians and the Germans. Neither deck in the canasta set is now complete with all the moves and boys not being careful. But I added one card from the red-backed cards to play solitaire. You never can win with a deck of 51, unless you are singing a Statler Brothers hit song, as in Flowers on the Wall.

I have been playing a lot of solitaire on the tablet lately.  After every couple of games played, I have to watch an advertisement.  I have been getting a lot of advertisements on how to “prevent” Alzheimer’s by playing solitaire or Mahjongg solitaire.  Sometimes they advertise any form of dementia can be “prevented.”

Of course, they wish for you to download their specific game.  Yet, the overwhelming theme is that we get settled into our Golden Years and we think we have made all the critical decisions that we will ever make.  Making decisions seems to be the theme.

Okay, the cards dealt in the photograph are from a game of Yukon.  I won the game, without hitting the UNDO button.  You do not have an UNDO button when you play the old-fashioned way.  I did not peak under the stacks of unturned cards to see if one card is a game killer or the other card leads to more moves.  Nope. No cheating.  I won the game by “higher stakes” decision making.  Since this is my only game using real cards this year.  I am 100% wins.  But on the tablet, I am 82% wins, only playing games that are winnable shuffles of the cards.  I had no guarantee when shuffling them myself.

But why did I consider it “higher stakes?”  I had no UNDO button.  I could not call up the menu and restart that particular shuffle of the cards and not be penalized as not having won.  For the ultimate solitaire player, having those tools to use, is there any excuse for ever losing?  Thus, the stakes were higher.  I only win 82% of the time when I should never lose.  Never losing means making the right decisions.  But when I see that the decision that cost me the game was near the beginning, I gave up 18% of the time.  Too lazy.  Too brain dead to hit RESTART and try again, no penalties assessed.  No one would know.

How does that kind of solitaire playing help your brain in critical thinking?  I think writing eleven blog posts each week does that a lot better.  I think teaching a Sunday school class does that a lot better.  There are a lot of more important decisions that can be made to keep the brain sharp than deciding which red three to choose, when if you choose the wrong one, you can start over with no penalty.

I do not think that I need to continuously make life or death decisions, but in small ways, we do that a lot without thinking.  I like the sign at the exit to one of the military kasernen in West Germany.  “You are about to leave the safe roads inside the military barracks area and get on to the most dangerous roads in the world.  Are you prepared?”

Frankly, I think American roads are worse than German roads.  Once I learned how the Germans drove, they were predictable.  It may seem crazy, but you knew what they were doing.  In the USA, are they texting?  Are they asleep?  Are they distracted by something in the backseat?  Without any distractions there are hundreds of things they could do that you won’t expect.  I’ll take the German speed demons any day.

But the Apostle Paul tells us to renew our minds by not conforming to this world.  We should be transformed by the Holy Spirit.  We should learn God’s Will. But isn’t all of that rather obscure?

That’s why I dug further.  What does the Apostle Paul tell us to do next?  If we can prophesy, prophesy, if we can serve, serve, if we can teach, teach, if we can encourage, give encouragement.

My wife gave more people encouragement than she ever realized.  She thought she was treading water until she died, but three times each week, she spread love to other people who had kidney failure at the clinic.  And no matter how much pain she was in, when she went to church, there was a smile on her face.  For the three months after she passed, people have approached me to say that her smile, knowing how badly infirmed she was, encouraged everyone who saw her.

So, I will not download Mahjongg or a different solitaire game.  I will write.  I will teach Sunday school.  And I will try my best to encourage others.  Let us renew our minds in ways that glorify God.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.