Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

• Philippians 4:8-9

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

• 2 Corinthians 10:5

“Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the pleasure even of kings.
“[One thought alone occupies us; we cannot think of two things at the same time. This is lucky for us according to the world, not according to God.]
“Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now, the order of thought is to begin with self, and with its Author and its end. Now, of what does the world think? Never of this, but of dancing, playing the lute, singing, making verses, running at the ring, &c., fighting, making oneself king, without thinking what it is to be a king and what to be a man.

• Blaise Pascal, Thoughts

Blaise Pascal, in his book entitled “Thoughts” talks even more about thoughts, and David Ettinger, I used your suggested verse.

My wife had a one-track mind.

She would often say that women are multitaskers and men can never be.  Pascal’s first thought of the trio of thoughts mirrors those sentiments.  His second follows suit, and warns that God does not like that.

Sure, if men are incapable of multitasking, and we always are thinking about sport or hunting, then we could never think about sex, which other philosophers would put above sport and hunting.  But now you have three constant thoughts in the hearts of mankind, and we have not gotten to God yet.

Ouch!

First, I think my wife was wrong.  At work, my saving grace, the thing that kept me employed at times was that I could keep a dozen projects juggling and none of them were completed late, unless the assigned person handed it to me half done and beyond the deadline – only happening twice and those people may have still been employed, but they did not work on projects for me anymore.  And I did that work at the office while preparing a Sunday School class, often having to write my own material.

So, Pascal may have mentioned a generality, and my wife loved getting under my skin knowing that maybe most men were poor at multitasking, but I was not.

God gives gifts and skills to us as we need them.  We simply trust Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.