Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.

• Revelation 12:11

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

• Colossians 3:12

“So there I was.  Standing before my painted blue boat, making the choice, of which voice to listen to.
“I’m convinced God was smiling. Pleased. Asking me to find delight in what is right. Wanting me to have compassion for myself by focusing on that part of my painting that expressed something beautiful. To just be eager to give that beauty to whoever dared to look at my boat. To create to love others. Not to beg them for validation.
“But the enemy was perverting all that. Perfection mocked my boat. The bow was too high, the details too elementary, the reflection on the water too abrupt, and the back of the boat too off-center. Disappointment demanded I hyper-focus on what didn’t look quite right.
“It was my choice which narrative to hold on to: ‘Not good enough’ or ‘Find delight in what is right.’ Each perspective swirled, begging me to declare it as truth.
“I was struggling to make peace with my painting creation, because I was struggling to make peace with myself as God’s creation. Anytime we feel not good enough we deny the powerful truth that we are a glorious work of God in progress.
“We are imperfect because we are unfinished.
“So, as unfinished creations, of course everything we touch will have imperfections. Everything we attempt will have imperfections. Everything we accomplish will have imperfections. And that’s when it hit me: I expect a perfection in me and a perfection in others that not even God Himself expects. If God is patient with the process, why can’t I be?
“How many times have I let imperfections cause me to be too hard on myself and too harsh with others?”

• Lysa TerKeurst, It’s Not Supposed to be this Way

Lysa TerKeurst preached to me a little here.  I am hard on myself, and I have held others to a higher standard.  Sometimes they exceed the false standard, but other times, they fall short.  But I always have excuses when I fall short of the standard that I set too high.

And then the Scriptures that she picks out goes beyond looking for that imperfection in us to learning how to deal with the issue.

We should be patient with others.  God was patient with us and He still is patient with us.

God is compassionate.  We have a great capacity for making mistakes.  We should remember that when we see someone trying to get it right, but they keep making mistakes.  God does not make mistakes, but He gave us the capacity to do so.  He may not be able to relate to being a screw-up, but He understands the process.  He is looking at the heart and the desires of our heart.  The final product is going to get fixed perfectly in the end if our heart is right.

Are we kind?  Does our lack of patience lead to not being kind?  Ouch!  Now, I am preaching to myself.

But when we puff out our chest, expecting others to do a better job, do we ever see our mistakes?  Like C. S. Lewis said, we could become humbler, but only after realizing that we are proud.

And when we deal with others, are we gentle?

The photo above is of a pastel chalk drawing that should have had 10-20 layers of chalk on it, but my mother hung it over the sink where she washed dishes.  The outer layers of blending to get it just right are gone, and you can see the tons of mistakes that I made in starting the project.  The big thing is that the depth was gone, the movement was lost, the entire thing was flat.

But as Lysa TerKeurst said about her painting of a blue boat, it is like the painter, an unfinished project, with a few flaws here or there.

My wife painted a lighthouse and a seascape.  My son saw it and wanted it, one of the few things that had my wife’s name painted on it.

But then, I had to tell him why it was in a box in the basement.  She had painted the seascape as part of a mother’s day out program.  The church had vendors that would give an inexpensive version of their craft.  Then the ladies would come and pay the minimal fee to see if they had any real interest in that craft.

As she painted the lighthouse, it was uneven.  One side was a little wider than the other.  As she tried to correct that, she over did it.  By the time it was finished, and fairly well level, the lighthouse fanned out so much at the bottom that the width was almost the same as the height.  One big triangle.

When I picked up the painting, I complimented her on a beautiful seascape.  She broke down crying.

She said, “Yeah, I’m fat, and I just painted the fattest lighthouse on the planet!”

She refused for me to display it, but I really saw no problem in a fat lighthouse.  What hurricane would dare try to knock it over?

Lord, guide me. Sometimes, I am too hard on myself.  Sometimes, I think I have arrived, finally curing my typo problem or my misquoting problem or whatever it is.  Sometimes, I may see the errors in others that I do not see in myself.  Please help me to realize that I am a work in progress.  I am not going to get it completely right until I am with You in Heaven.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.