Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.

• Proverbs 16:7

Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value the one who speaks what is right.

• Proverbs 16:13

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

• Proverbs 18:2

“A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.”

• C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

As for the Scriptures, the three proverbs about pleasures look at both sides.  If God takes pleasure in someone, He will provide peace for them.  Kings value honesty and those who speak what is right.  But on the negative side, a fool finds no pleasure in understanding but that does not mean they will not voice their misunderstood opinion.

I told my son I was going to write a post about remembering pleasures, but I could not think of anything to write about.  He said that he did not know whether that was a hilarious funny or a pathetic funny.

But, in spite of a lifetime of hard knocks, my wife and I lived in four time zones, and one was not in the USA (West Germany during the Cold War).  She lived in the Mountain time zone (El Paso, Texas), but we as a family only visited that time zone.  We did a lot of traveling, but only two or three big vacations.  The family went to many theme parks in Florida, Georgia, and Ohio.  We went to National parks across the country.

While some things were a combination of fun and educational, we had our pleasures, but as my wife and I got older, we remembered the little things, the special meals, the friends we had over for dinner, that sort of thing.  And we especially loved the friends that loved to laugh.  There was always laughter.

I asked my son if he remembered the good times, and he mentioned several.  He did admit after the job layoffs that the vacations were few and far between.  It became trips across the country to move with the work and visiting relatives.  Otherwise, there was little money for extravagant trips.

But in talking with neighbors and such, I have heard some people who had normal childhoods, but they had become sour for one reason or another.  They denied all the vacations they had ever been on.  They denied ever having any pleasures at all.

It reminds me of what C. S. Lewis said about the person who arrives in Hell, every pleasure they had in life becomes sour and all a part of Hell after all.  But the person going to Heaven finds everything, even the unpleasant things all a part of the preparation to be in God’s presence in Heaven.

Looking back at the past and reliving it is nonproductive.  But C. S Lewis has a point.  When we remember the pleasures and remember the people with us that made those pleasures possible, then the pleasure matures into a wonderful thing.  And maybe, we can say a prayer for those who were with us when those pleasures blossomed.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.