Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

• Leviticus 19:18

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them.

• Deuteronomy 13:6-8

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

• Exodus 33:11

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

• Luke 11:5-13

I am a friend to all who fear you,
    to all who follow your precepts.
The earth is filled with your love, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.

• Psalm 119:63-64

For the sake of my family and friends,
    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

• Psalm 122:8

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.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week Babs lamented that she had no children, and then Willie’s children came in and asked if they could call her Grand Babs or mixing it up a bit Grabbabs.

This week, Babs had been gone all day.  A lady from the food bank picked her up.  I did not catch the name when she left, but I recognized the Mercedes Benz that pulled in my driveway to drop her off.

I met Babs at the door.  “Babs, You have barely been here six weeks and you are hobnobbing with the influential of Tracy?”

Babs giggled, “Yes, she drives a Mercedes, but that was just Eleanor from the food bank.  She talked to me after distribution was over and she said she wanted to give me a proper greeting to life in Tracy.  We went all over town, but not any of the places you have taken me.  And I got presents!”  She put her shopping bag on the sofa.  She then pulled out sweatshirts for each of the Tracy professional sports teams.  “I told her these were not my colors, but she said if I were to make Tracy my permanent home, the colors were not negotiable.  And here, you have not said much of anything about sports or wearing the city colors.”

I snickered, “I have lived here all my life.  It is kind of a part of what Tracy is, so I don’t much think about it.  I have never been in Tracy for any sport season in a long time.  The baseball team and hockey team are on a sports channel that I do not get on my cable selections.  My thought was why pay a lot of money for television that I am never home to watch?  Now that I am home, I keep up with the scores, but I rarely watch a game.”

Babs shrugged, “Eleanor has season tickets for box seats behind the home team dugout.  She wants you and I to join her for a game in April once the baseball season starts.  Can we go?”

I nodded, “That would be a special treat.  But why all this hospitality from Eleanor?  She hobnobs with the political powers of the city.  She had a couple of fund raisers at her home for our new mayor’s election campaign.  If he runs for governor someday, she will be influential in that.  Sure, she is a worker at the food bank, and she is a member of the church’s prayer team…”

Babs’ eyes brightened, “Yes, she asked me if I spend a lot of time in prayer.  I told her that you and I pray a lot.  She said that there is no real requirement to join.  I am not a church member yet, but she said once that was taken care of, I could become a prayer warrior as long as I agreed to the confidentiality of the prayer requests.  I told her that I don’t know enough people at the church to betray a confidence.  She laughed at that.  She told me with my personality, I’d know everyone soon enough.”

I laughed, “But be careful with Eleanor.  She does weald a lot of power.  I am sure you went to a lot of high brow places today.”

Babs cackled, “We visited with Dorothy Cahn at the mission downtown, but Eleanor called her Dot Com.  We briefly met with that nice police lieutenant’s father, Thou Yeggs.  He said something about Thou being short for Thousand Year Old Yeggs, but he was joking so much, I don’t know what to believe.”

I laughed, “I know very little, other than he led a life of crime, and his family lost everything.  If his son had not married Pink Lady, he would not have a bakery, and the other son is the police lieutenant, a lot of hard work to get where he is.  But what I have heard, Thou is a model citizen now.  Any other garden spots?”

Babs smiled, “We went to a museum, an art gallery, and the botanical gardens.  You know, Harold, I never had a friend.  I had people that I worked with, but those people could either be friendly or cutthroat depending on what we were doing or how much was in the budget.  I was willing to do just about anything to keep on top.  Then, as age started shortening my call backs, I relied on my investments.  But having someone to confide in?  No, not that kind of friend.”

I sighed, “And Eleanor may not be that kind of friend.  She splits her time between the rich and powerful and the disadvantaged.  We work with the disadvantaged, so we are teammates, but if you unloaded your background baggage on her, you may be less of an asset and more of a liability.”

Babs groaned, “So, friendship is not all that it is cracked up to be?”

I smiled, “It’s a two-way street.  Some friendships can be built simply on the fact that you are fellow believers in Jesus, but then sometimes you need that other interest.  In your case, feeding the hungry.  Let’s have a little Bible study on that subject.”

After supper, since it was supper time when she came back from her tour, we had a long opening prayer.  Then I asked, “Do you remember the Greatest Commandment?”

Babs giggled and scrunched her nose.  “That’s to love God with all your heart mind and soul.  And then the second is as great as the first to love your neighbor as yourself.  But that always bothered me.  Okay, ever since I started reading the Bible, about a year ago, it has bothered me.  The Good Samaritan is Jesus’ answer to who your neighbor is, but I wasn’t liking myself a year ago.  What if you do not like who you are?”

I asked, “Babs, are you a porn star or a child of God?”

Babs shrugged, “Can I be a former porn star and a child of God?”

I asked, “Did you tell Eleanor that you were a former porn star?”

Babs shivered, “Harold, she grew up in polite society.  She might not like me if she knew where I came from.”

I sighed, “That’s why I said to be careful.  Eleanor is powerful, in her way, but if she sees your feet of clay, she may disown you.  That could ruin your standing with political powers.  But then, a church leader who wants to illustrate how God can redeem the sinner?  You might be the poster child, but that opens you to the occasional proposition.”

Babs bowed her head and looked at the floor.  “Yes, Harold, I know the dangers.  The younger Babs had no fear, and I have fear by the bucket full.  Why do you think I was hiding in an assisted living home in Arizona?  I was hoping no one recognized me.  So, I might be Eleanor’s workmate at the food bank, but I might not be at her political fund raisers.  Okay, I understand my place.  I might not even serve cocktails at those fund raisers without the fear of being recognized.”

I laughed, “But Babs, the blonde hair, the glasses, and your choice of wardrobe is a great disguise.  We can only take that one day at a time.  But as for liking yourself, most people have that in abundance.  And sometimes, those people, who do not like themselves that much, may not like a certain aspect of themselves with their self-loathing being a thought that they had been wronged.  So, they think highly of themselves, but not that one thing that they do not like.  But God takes those who know they cannot lift themselves up and He places them on the high place.  We are children of God, not by what we are of ourselves, but what God is within us.  And our way of loving others is to show them that they can throw away the worldly façade and obtain what God offers, which is ever lasting.”

Babs asked, “But you are not talking about Eleanor leading me into worshipping of false gods, like in Deuteronomy 13.  You are just worried that my past will always come back to haunt me.  Is that right?”

I smiled, “You have done your homework.  You are starting to sound like the young Babs more each day.  No, our greatest challenge is the new ideas that crop up in the church more than straying away to false gods, but in a way, if we redefine who Jesus is, would that not be a false god, just named Jesus?”

She nodded. “So what’s next?”

I snickered, “Who is your greatest friend?”

Without hesitation, she said, “Jesus!  That is besides the guy I’m sitting next to.”

I groaned, “I might let you down, but Jesus would not.  Exodus 33 says that Moses talked to God face to face, like they were best friends.  That is how we should be with Jesus when we pray.  First Thessalonians 5 talks about praying continually.  If we did that, we would sin less.  In sinning less, we would have less confessions.  In having less confessions, we would simply talk more, as we would to a friend.  And I think we would ask for less.  As we talked to Him, we would realize how we have all we need in Him.”

Babs smiled, “I’m starting to feel that more and more each day.  This is a new thing for me.  I have to get used to it.”

I patted her hand.  “Now let’s look at Luke 11.  There is a lot packed into that.  Jesus is talking about praying.  He repeats the Lord’s Prayer, at least in part, and then He talks about persistent prayer.  He uses the parable of the guy asking his neighbor for bread.  The friend would not give him bread out of friendship, but he would because the other friend was persistent.  So, Jesus then says the line about asking, seeking, and knocking.  God will open the kingdom for you if you ask, but you have to ask.  Then Jesus teaches about how a father will give a good gift to a son.  Our Heavenly Father does the same.”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “Is there any poetry to top this off?”

I laughed, “Yes, there is.  Psalm 119:63-64 speak of how the psalmist is a friend to all those who fear God and God provides His precepts so that we might obey.  Then Psalm 122:8 says that to all our friends we wish ‘peace within you.’”

Babs scrunched her nose again.  “Not just peace?”

I smiled, “No, Babs, we will always have wars and rumors of wars.  But when we get to our Heavenly reward, we will have peace.  But we can have that peace within us right now.  We can feel calm, cool, and relaxed, even in the hard times.  We know Jesus is in control.”

Babs said, “And I know that Harold Dykstra is a good teacher.”  She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

The next day when I picked up the mail, there was a letter without a stamp on it.  It was addressed to Babs.

After Babs had read it, she shared it with me.

To Bountiful Babs,

I have a confession to make.  My late husband was in advertising.  He was a wonderful man, but when he first started having problems in bed, I bought him a video of yours.  We played it while we were in bed together.  It took something that God had made good and turned it into something less than perfect.  But that was my doing.  I will keep your secret if you keep mine.  I loved our outing, and I would like to do it again.  Maybe this time you can show me around.  I hear that you know Pink Lady and Harold is involved with the advertisement campaign for the new mission project to feed the homeless.  With my advertising contacts, Harold and I could work together.  He’ll know what to say, and I have contacts with the media platforms where it can be said.

Your friend, Eleanor

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.

When I first moved to the Pittsburgh area, I was uneasy about how so many people wore black. It took me a while to realize that they were simply wearing the team colors. It bothers me some that they choose the black over the gold, but in more than 25 years in the area, it bothers me a little less. And no, I rarely wear either color, other than my black suit coat.

Eleanor is a composite of several friends of mine, not all the same person.  If you recognize a few aspects, some others won’t fit.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.