Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
How long will you assault me?
    Would all of you throw me down—
    this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me
    from my lofty place;
    they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
    but in their hearts they curse.
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.

• Psalm 62:1-8

“Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”

• C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

I chose the Scripture because in knowing our rest is in God, we know we are never alone.

They say that people who talk to themselves are crazy.  I disagree.

I heard someone once say that people talk to themselves because they either like hearing an intelligent person talk or they like talking to an intelligent person.  I can agree with both of those interpretations.

A pastor talked about talking to yourself once.  I told him that talking to yourself is not being crazy.  Arguing with yourself is not necessarily crazy.  But if you wind up losing the argument?  I then shrugged my shoulders to which the pastor’s reply was to simply double over laughing.

But I think a lot of my talking to myself is prayer.  God is the only one that is attentive.  Sometimes, I can talk to myself and lose my train of thought, so obviously I am not listening that attentively.

My brother was over nine years older than me, by about four months.  My sister was older than my brother by about fourteen months.  For much of my youth, growing up on a farm, I played board games with three people playing each time: Me, Myself, and I.  I rarely won.  You would think about a third of the time, but no, the more I played, the more I was convinced that I was a loser.  Now, Me and Myself?  They won a lot!

I listen to a lot of Big Band Music, which filters in some singers of that era or modern-day singers that reprise that kind of music.  I heard a song, We Three, by Kay Starr some time ago.  Many others have recorded the song, but the music service on the cable system has her version.  It uses a different concept than Me, Myself, and I.  Her love interest has left her, and she is left with simply her echo, which she talks to, her shadow, which she walks with, and me.  But none of them seem to be good company.

Having been married for 48 years when my wife passed away last year, I could get maudlin.  But that is why I added the quote from C. S. Lewis.  The time is set on deciding what to do.

But, with no one in the room except God and me, and maybe a couple of mice…  But I would rather not think about the mice.  Nope, I will consider my talking to myself as prayer.  God listens, even when I am talking nonsense.  God cares.  And God lets me know when it is time to leave the house and hear another person talk for a while.

And as for We Three, I have Jesus in my heart. The Holy Spirit guides me.

And we three,
Can wait for eternity,
For Jesus, a face to face to see,
My echo, my shadow, and me.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.