Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

• Luke 12:15-21

I babysat the grandchildren in early August.  My son had to go to his job at the school, but the students did not show up for another ten days.  A couple of those days, my daughter-in-law was there some of the time, so it was rarely a heavy-lifting job.

When I returned, I realized that the first time since my wife passed away, I had nothing on my calendar.  I was at this point stepping into my future.

I had done this once before in my youth, having graduated college, but I had my entire life ahead of me then.  This was a little different.  While I have my problems, I know how to hear God’s voice, and I was excited on what might be possible in the near future.

But then, I got a call from one doctor, reminding me of an appointment.  Oops, my calendar was not completely empty.  Then, I went by the pharmacist to get a shingles shot, only to be told that it was the first of two shots.  Then, another forgotten appointment came up.  I used to be irritated by the constant reminders, but with two forgotten appointments in the same month, I was glad I got the calls.

Then, I looked at the calendar, and the month had something every week.  Then, the next month, the landlady showed up with a roofing crew.  To make matters worse, in our conversation, I told of other things that were broken.  I suddenly had two appointments each week that month.  Then the next month I had some scheduled tests, with a doctor follow-up a month later.  Another month of appointments.

My point is that we may not be like the rich man with too much crop to store.  We may think that we are rich in time, time we can either waste or time well spent.  But then, there are those nagging appointments.

But I kept up with my writing when I had all those appointments, and I was my wife’s caregiver.  These appointments are necessary, but I still have more time than I did before to write something.  And as I have been writing recently, as recent as yesterday’s post, God has this.

But beware.  If you think your calendar is empty, clear of appointments…  If you think you can relax and take a break…  Beware, the phone is about to ring.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.