Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

• Exodus 20:17

But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

• Philippians 1:18-21

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

• Matthew 6:25-34

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

• Luke 12:16-21

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Since she was a doll that had come to life, we came up with the term ‘other living.’  She was not a human, an animal, or even a plant, but she was definitely living, and very vibrant.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs fussed about someone who had cussed.

This week, she was frustrated that we were looking for something that we could not obtain.

We were driving after church to the next town where I had a few sales calls.  “Babs, what is eating at you today?  You are not your bubbly self.”

Babs muttered, “Harold, when will you and your children quit wanting that green grass in the next yard?”

I shrugged, “I have no desire to have the green grass in the neighbor’s yard.”

Babs huffed, “How so?”

I moaned, “Babs, if my grass was as lush as his grass is, and green the year round?  I’d be mowing every day.”

Babs growled, “You know what I mean, Harold.  Besides, since you are never at home, you have a lawn service mow your grass.”

I back peddled, “Yes, I know, but with greener grass, they would be mowing weekly instead of every other week, and that doubles my lawn care expense!”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “It is impossible having a serious conversation with you when you are in your joking mood.”

“Okay, Babs,” I said.  “I will get serious as a heart attack.  Oh, no, you are not talking about me having a heart attack are you.  You know, you say the word three times, and then it comes true!”

Babs made a face.  “What are you talking about?”

I said, “I already said it twice.  Saying those words one more time will be the third time!  I may be crazy, but I am not that far gone that I cannot count to three.”

“What words?” Babs asked.

I shook my head.  “No way.  Not gonna do it.”

Babs got a little louder than she normally did.  “Harold, you cannot get a heart attack by saying ‘heart attack’ three times.  That is a superstition, or it is something you made up.  That means you are lying and we know you should not do that, or you are believing in something, a silly superstition, instead of God and God wants no other gods before Him.  I will prove it to you.  Heart attack.  Heart attack.  Heart attack!  See there.  Nothing!  Wait!  Uck! Ick!”  And then she slumped in her car seat with only the seatbelt holding her upright.  She was lifeless.

I shouted, “Babs!  Babs!  Are you alright?”  I was starting to pull onto the shoulder of the highway.

Babs perked back up.  “Harold!  Get back on the road and keep driving.  I am fine.”  She started giggling.  “But I had you going there, didn’t I?  Come on, Harold.  Laugh!  I told you that I am with you until you are no longer traveling for a living.  I could say heart attack ten times, and I would not croak from a heart attack.  Okay, Sweetie?”

I muttered, “Okay, you taught me a lesson.  Lesson received and understood.  But let’s start with Morrie.  Why does he covet?”

Babs shook her head.  “Morrie had an affair with two ladies.  Now that he has accepted Jesus, he has not found enough to keep his mind off his old lifestyle, even though he knows it was not only wrong, but it was wrecking his marriage and his health.  He wants excitement, but loving Jesus can be exciting.  He can go on the wrong side of the big city of Tracy and evangelize.  You know, dodge drive-by shootings and such.”

I snarled, “I don’t think I want that for Morrie.  It may take him a while to get into ‘settling down’ mode.”

Babs whistled, “Great excuse for Morrie, but Willie is married to a pastor.  She cannot wish for anything because it would not look like she was being the perfect Christian, but she cannot get out of her own way wishing that she had a better refrigerator, a better cook stove, and better lawn care service provider.”

I asked, “Is her husband spending so much time visiting the sick that he cannot mow the lawn?”

Babs looked at me like I was extremely stupid.  I had my eyes on the road, but when there was a certain amount of pause in the conversation…

“Harold,” she said with that tone that follows the look that indicates I said something stupid.  “He does not know how to crank the lawn mower.”

I sputtered, “But they have an electric mower!”

“Pathetic, right!” was Babs’ reply.

I said something that I knew was going to get me into even more hot water.  You know, your brain says for your tongue to flick out like a frog’s tongue and grab those words before they can be heard, but the tongue has already let them fly.  So, now all you can do is face the music.

Oh, what were those words.  “Babs, I don’t covet anything.”

Babs’ voice was not only louder than before, but a higher pitch.  “You are the worst of the bunch!  Your children have learned from you.”

I was about to get schooled on covetousness.  “Okay, Babs, in what way do I covet?”

Babs said, “You had enough to retire when your wife died, but you didn’t.  Why?  Don’t answer that!  Because you are comparing your retirement savings to some bogus number that an investment firm invented so that no one would ever retire.  The number goes up faster than you can save, but you already have enough!”

I asked, “But what about the children?”

Babs groaned, “Harold, did your parents leave you anything?”

I shrugged, “The house.  No cash.  My wife and I had to figure out how to pay for the mountain of repairs that my parents had ignored.”

Babs smiled, “But Morrie and Willie both have homes that will be paid off before they retire.  You have helped them already more than your parents helped you.  A big cash day when you pass away turns a funeral into Hip! Hip! Hooray!”

I asked, “And what was that, Babs?  I have never known you to be poetic.”

Babs shrugged, “I don’t know.  I had the ‘day’ and the ‘away’ and I decided to keep going.  My bad!”

I asked, “But Babs, if I had not kept working, I would have never met you.  Right?”

Babs groaned, “Yeah, my ‘other living’ life.  I stubbed my toe this morning, and it hurt!”

I risked looking at her quizzically.  “We have already determined that ‘other living’ beings do not feel such physical pain.”

Babs moaned, “That was yesterday, Harold.  The longer that I stay in this form, the more human I get.  And if one of those things is a sin nature, there is no way that I will wait for that.”

I moaned, “But, Babs, how will I know if I have enough saved for retirement?  I might live a very long time.”

Babs huffed, “You have to trust God!  Each day that you spend working is one less day of retirement that you will enjoy.  God has your days numbered, Harold.  So, you keep working means less time to do what God has in store for you next.”

I asked, “And what is that?”

Babs said, “1. 2. 3.” And we sang, “I don’t know” to the tune of my doorbell chime.

I asked another question.  “Do you have any Scripture to back this up, other than Exodus 20:17, the Tenth Commandment?”

Babs giggled, “Of course, Philippians 1:18-21.  Paul is saying whether he is alive another day or he is killed for sharing the Gospel, whatever.  God will give him sufficient courage, and we could add money and other needs to that.  To live is Christ!  To die is gain!”

I nodded, “That is compelling.  God’s provisions are sufficient.  What else?”

Babs giggled, “How about 2 Corinthians 12:9-10?  You like context.  Paul has just talked about he had this thorn in the flesh, and he asked God three times to remove it, but God said to Paul for him to be confident that God’s Grace is sufficient.  Through Paul’s weakness, Paul was strong.  Why?  He had to rely on God more, and God can provide better than you can provide for yourself.”

I asked, “Was that a statement of fact or a dig at my puniness?”

Babs sighed, “Hmmm. … Both.”

I snickered.  “I think there is more.  What about Matthew 6:25-34?  What is worrying other than seeing that someone else is better prepared and you worry if you are prepared enough.  You might not have worried if you did not use the comparison.”

Babs growled, “Harold, that is what I started with!  I just did not mention the Bible verses.  You are worried about not having enough.  The investment firm says you need two million dollars to retire, but I am telling you that if you have twenty thousand dollars, you will be able to retire easy with that money and your Social Security.”

I moaned, “The way our government spends money that they do not have, Social Security is not a guarantee.”

Babs asked, “What have I been saying, Harold?”

I replied, “Trust God?”

Babs nodded, “I will ignore that you said that as a question.  But what was God’s response in the parable of the Rich Fool?  He was building bigger barns to hold his great crop of grain.  Then he was going to eat, drink, and live a happy life.”

I replied, “Babs, I told you that if I said ‘heart attack’ three times …  Wait!  That was the third time!  Babs, what did you make me do?”

Babs sighed and patted me on the arm.  “Harold, you wonderful God-fearing man, who would never be superstitious.  The way you are going on, you might think it was Friday the Thirteenth or something! You did not die.  You are not going to die for the rest of this sales trip.  Say ‘heart attack’ all that you want, Sweetie.  But God has your days numbered.  Enjoy some of those days rather than working your fingers to the bone, just so Morrie can waste your extra money on a new boat.”

I swerved as I feared that thought. “Babs!  Tell me that Morrie is not buying another boat.  I sunk deep into savings bailing him out, literally!  No more boats, Babs!”

Babs giggled, “It is so funny how I can get you to say something superstitious and worry about something by just slipping little things into the conversation.  Harold, you are not dying of a heart attack.  Morrie learned his lesson and he has no desire to buy another boat.  But you might kill both of us if you swerve the car wildly like you just did.  Two hands on the steering wheel.  Eyes down the road.  And Harold, I love you!”

“I love you too, Babs, but one reason to keep working is to keep you around.”

Babs sighed, “Harold, I told you before.  I feel very strongly about this, and you know how my hunches go.  Something better will come along, but I have to leave for that to happen.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

My wife worried about everything, until at the end, she saw Jesus beckoning her to come to Heaven and she realized that I had been taking care of the house for the previous three years or so on my own.

And she was irritated that I was not worried.  Sure, at times, I was like the duck, calm above the surface, but those webbed feet were churning beneath the water.  But I was finally content.  Even if I needed 100 dollars for every dollar that I really had (or was it a thousand?). But that is according to the investment guy, but I doubt if he trusts God.  I cannot rely on the next president.  I cannot rely on the solvency of the banks.  But I can rely on God, no matter what the investment banker says or how much more the neighbor has saved up.

And, regarding Babs talking about Friday the 13th, this post is scheduled to come out on Friday the Thirteenth, but remember, it is Friday the 13th only because the day before was Thursday the 12th. Trust God, not superstitions.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.