Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

• 1 Kings 18:27

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

• Haggai 1:7-11

The first Scripture is one of my favorites.  Elijah is trash talking the prophets of Baal.  Since Baal is a false god, Baal was not busy or asleep.

The day before my latest surgery, a little over two weeks ago, I was extremely busy.  The hospital said they would call between two and four in the afternoon, but they called to schedule my surgery at ten in the morning.  I was at church at a meeting.  I gathered all the information from the meeting and typed it up that afternoon.  Luckily, the voice mail was next to the computer, and I saw the light flashing, indicating a new voice mail.  I called them back to confirm the appointment.

I was not doing as Haggai writes about.  I was not working on my stuff and leaving the work for the Lord for after my stuff was finished.

But I had a lot of my stuff to do.  I changed the bed linens early that morning.  I bought some anti-bacterial body soap on my way to the church.  I mopped the kitchen floor.  I did a load of clothing, including the linens that I removed from the bed.  I had already adjusted my pill pack a week ago to remove the medicines that they did not want me taking, a week, two days, and one day before going in for surgery.

And my son got sick, and I had to talk to him.  The day was full, but I still had time to write this, and I hope to add a paragraph later, before it is scheduled, about how the surgery went well.  For those that prayed, thank you so much.

The surgery was unsuccessful. That is harsh. The surgery removed a crusted over stent and replacing it, taking way too long. So, the procedure was repeated two days ago. Since I am usually unable to do blogging within a few days of the surgery, the update on that surgery is still pending.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.