Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

• Matthew 11:28-30

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

• Mark 8:34

I am writing this between the procedures to remove a kidney stone.  They put in a stent, and by the time this comes out, I may already have the stent removed along with a very huge kidney stone that basically prevented one kidney from doing anything.

As of writing this, I feel better than I have for six months, but the methodology for the procedure left me catheterized for three days.  And three weeks later, I am still getting spasms due to that.  In ways, I am relearning how to potty train myself.  I am wondering if I am facing a new normal, diapers for long trips, carefully planned trips to the grocery store, etc. noting where all the public restrooms are located. And I am taking two pills that would each make me urgently go to the bathroom.

I know, too much information, TMI.

There are other issues going on that have my head spinning.  More on that next week, maybe.

And a weird aftermath of the last procedure is that I do not find it easy to sleep in any other position other than on my back.  The CPAP starts leaking even sooner in that position.  I place the pillow over my head like I am suffocating myself – hard to do with a constant pressure air supply.  And then to hold the pillow in place, I put a comforter on top of the pillow.  When that doesn’t work, I wrap my arms over the pillow and really get into a suffocating position.

So, my sleep has been spotty for three weeks.

But what do you expect from an easy yoke and a light burden.  Note:  There is nothing said about no yoke.  A yoke means we are shackled to someone else for the purpose of moving a load.  That other person is Jesus.  Jesus could carry the load without our help, but the idea about being unequally yoked is that the wimpy ox (me) would then have no strain against him.  You need the strain or you simply do not develop the muscle power to carry any load at all.

So, Jesus promises us an easy yoke because He is yoked with us.  He promises a light burden, but enough of a burden so that we grow.  This may be a hard lesson for some of you.  You may have been told that becoming a Christian is this free ride.  You cannot buy your way to Heaven, but God expects us to repent.  God desires for us to show our love toward others, not just put a few bucks in the offering plate or vote for a candidate that promises to feed the poor (probably a lie to get elected anyway).

Nope, we need to actively love other people, and in this modern secular world of hating everyone who disagrees with your way of thinking, loving them is next to impossible.

I am an introvert.  Loving someone as I love myself means leaving them alone, but then again, that is probably not what God means by that, and that would be one of those no yoke at all things.

So, if I get up five times in the course of a worship service to go to the bathroom, I am not sick.  It is my new normal.  At least for a while.  And if it gets that bad, I might just leave early that Sunday.

And if you are in my Sunday school class and I say, “Talk amongst yourselves” you know where I am going.

The alternative to this yoke thing is taking up our cross.  Now that is a heavy load, and you never return to normal after that trip.  But in a way, the light burden thing is preparing us for that journey that takes us to a new home anyway.  And the tougher the journey gets, the more prepared we will be.

My soldier of a wife taught me that much.  She was ready to go.  Her bags were packed.  And she had a smile on her face, but oh, the pain she endured.  I think she smiled because she saw who was on the other side of the yoke.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.