Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

• Ephesians 6:5

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

• Romans 6:16-18

Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.

• Proverbs 1:23

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

• Proverbs 4:26

She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

• Proverbs 5:6

“I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head (for it is only experience which teaches us that the head is more necessary than feet). But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

“Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

“Thought constitutes the greatness of man.”

• Blaise Pascal, Thoughts (thoughts 339, 345, and 346)

Here I sit like a bird in the wilderness…  Hmmm.  That reminds me of a song, but I cannot put my finger on it.

No, at this point in my day, the mail is late, the trash collector is late, and I am waiting for a phone call.

Okay, the trash collector came.  The mail came.  And I may not find out the results with a phone call for another 3-4 weeks.  Someone that I love, did something stupid, and the results may not be known for nearly a month whether the stupid thing will affect their lives drastically.  No one is pregnant.  No one is worried about a dread disease.  It might be quite sinful, but not illegal.  Mostly a glorified waste of time.  After, if the results are negative, I will be writing about it.  But if they are not negative, I might still write about it.

Doing something stupid is about like the middle thought.  We become a fool.  And some foolish things cause a moment of embarrassment.  Some cause someone to repeat a grade in school or take a college course a second time.  Some foolish mistakes can cause you to lose your job.

But simply not thinking seems to have its own life force these days.  An industry out there by thinking folk are encouraging others to not think.

I can picture the first time that I ever saw a man hand the checkout clerk at the department store his check.  She inserted it in the register’s printer.  She handed him back the check and had to show him where to draw his “X”.  Yes, there are pockets in America where people have never learned how to read.  They cannot sign their name to a check.  But then, sitting on the front porch of their house and talking with them, they may have a world of stories to tell.  They may have wisdom beyond bounds.

But to willfully disobey when someone tries to teach you how to read?

I have been going through the Proverbs of late for the Wednesday Night Vespers, and a lot talk about not accepting rebuke, shunning wisdom, and other ways of just being stupid.

And to grieve over someone like that causes oneself to feel stupid also.  The thoughts do not gel in one’s mind at such times.

But God is in charge, and this may only be a slight bump in the road.  Regardless, everything works for the good for those who love the Lord and keep His commandments.  It may not feel good at the time.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.