Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Laziness brings on deep sleep,
    and the shiftless go hungry.
Whoever keeps commandments keeps their life,
    but whoever shows contempt for their ways will die.
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
    and he will reward them for what they have done.
Discipline your children, for in that there is hope;
    do not be a willing party to their death.
A hot-tempered person must pay the penalty;
    rescue them, and you will have to do it again.
Listen to advice and accept discipline,
    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

• Proverbs 19:15-21

Proverbs 19:21”Can you imagine the outcome if a parent honored each request of each child during a trip? We’d inch our bloated bellies from one ice-cream store to the next …
“Can you imagine the chaos if God indulged each of ours? …
“ ‘God did not choose us [emphasis mine] to suffer his anger but to have salvation through our Lord Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
“Note God’s destiny for your life. Salvation.
“God’s overarching desire is that you reach that destiny. His itinerary includes stops that encourage your journey. He frowns on stops that deter you. When his sovereign plan and your earthly plan collide, a decision must be made. Who’s in charge of this journey?
“If God must choose between your earthly satisfaction and your heavenly salvation, which do you hope he chooses?
“Me too.”

• Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm

I think the comment about deep sleep in Proverbs 19:15 is that you feel groggy after you wake up and it is very hard to get into the working mode.

I have a watch that distinguishes between light sleep and deep sleep.  It is brutally honest that I toss and turn a lot at night, and I rarely get more than two hours of deep sleep.  But I have known days where I got roughly three hours of deep sleep, and I could not fully wake up all day.  I pressed on.  I did not fall prey to laziness, but if I had, would I have again gotten more deep sleep than needed and had a non-productive day the following day?

But show enough laziness and you will go hungry.

Proverbs 19:16 speaks of contempt toward God’s Laws.  They will die.  It is not that you just ignore God’s Laws, but you show contempt for them.  The one who absentmindedly says a curse word or covets his neighbor’s watermelons in the watermelon patch is still sinning.  We all slip up in our own ways, but this is thumbing your nose at God and deliberately flaunting the sin before God and everyone around them.  I pray for those who participate in Pride rallies.  It is not the sin; it is flaunting the sin in front of God and being proud that you did so.

I had no idea that Proverbs 19:17 was part of what I would write about today, but this morning, I saw a panhandler and gave him ten dollars.  My wife might have done that if she were still alive.  As I went home, I prayed that the guy really was in need.  God knew my heart, and that was all that mattered.

Proverbs 19:18 speaks of discipline and it says that if we do not discipline, we are being a party unto their death.  Do you know 20-something adults who spend all day playing video games and never having worked a day in their lives?  If the parents keep funding that behavior, they will have no life skills to survive once the parents pass away, or worse yet, being invalids, needing care.  The 20-something may be counting on a quick death for the parents to cash in on the life insurance policy.

Proverbs 19:19 comes back to the short-tempered person versus a God who is slow to anger.  I have difficulty in this area, but I am learning.  It depends on whether I try to do the work on my steam or do I rely on God.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit takes over, and others wonder at how I remained calm, but afterward, I have no idea what my friends are talking about.  In that bit of wisdom, I have to fully rely on God.

The next proverb is the positive Grace side of accepting discipline compared to the negative side in verse 18.

And the last proverb in this set, followed by Max Lucado’s question, is where most of us get confused.  The prosperity gospel peddlers have large followings because people are greedy.  They want more than what they need.  Or they have this grand idea where they will lead a great mission for God, but in all the grandiose ideas of their idea, who gets the glory, the mission leader or God?

I wandered in the wilderness of the USA industrial nightmare.  I found enjoyment in each drudgery job.  I tried to affect other people’s lives in a positive way.  But God was humbling me all along the way.  And when I asked God “Why?!” His reply was to start writing a blog.  And here in the eighth year of this blog with nearly 3700 posts, I have learned why.  I was not on God’s path, but God used the path that I had taken to make me usable on His path.

How has it been in your life when you chose your way instead of God’s way?

And now let us sing.

The following song is Just a Closer Walk with Thee.  This is sung by Alabama (the Country music group, not the entire state), with Gordon Mote on the piano.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Help us hold our temper. And Lord, if we are on the receiving end of discipline, help us learn from it.  If we have to discipline someone else, help us do so in love.  We do not wish to contribute to their undoing by not disciplining them.  And all of this boils down to Proverbs 19:21.  When we stay on the path you intended for us, everything in the world seems to align, where our plans are ill-conceived at best.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.