Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

He who blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning,
It will be counted a curse to him.

• Proverbs 27:14

“I love the empty, silent, dewy, cobwebby hours.”

• C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

When I wrote this, it was early morning.  The students were trudging through the dew to the bus stop.  No one had a smile on their face.  And with a recent cold front that had come through, there was a wonderful crispness in the air.  A hint that cooler weather was coming.

I was brought back in my mind to a service project that our church was working on.  This was at least five residences ago and over 35 years ago.  I cannot remember what we were doing.  Maybe we were loading the truck to send a crew to Charleston, SC after Hurricane Hugo hit the city.  Our church spent every weekend for a couple of months doing nothing but cutting trees with chainsaws so that the utility crews and emergency services could reach all the people.  Stately trees make wonderful neighborhoods until they fall on the power lines and block the roads.

But the point here is that the sun had yet to arise.  I met the pastor in the hallway, and I used my usual greeting, “And how are you this wonderful morning!”

He looked at me and snarled.  He simply said, “Proverbs 27:14.”  He then went to the kitchen and grumbled because the coffee maker had not produced the first pot yet.

Well, this was a work crew.  This was not Sunday morning.  I had to go to the sanctuary to look up the verse in a pew Bible.  I laughed when I read it.  The curse did not bother me at all.

But I learned from that experience.  Some people wake up grumpy.  And some of those grumpy people are not less grumpy after their first cup of coffee.  It is as if the caffeine intensifies the grumpiness.

So, be careful with your early morning greetings.

But, as for me, when you see me any hour of the day, usually …  You ask, “How are you?”  And my reply is “Absolutely Wonderful!”

Sorry, if you take that as a curse, that’s your problem.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.