Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

• 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

• Romans 12:1-2

You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

• Psalm 16:11

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

• Psalm 42:1-4

I spent two weeks in Tennessee and northern Mississippi from Christmas until after my sister had two memorial services for her late husband.  I am back home.  My son put me in the teenager’s room.  I like cold weather and he put me in the room with the least heat, the far end of the hall from the noisy living room, and it had a full sized bed.

There was no desk and working at the chest of drawers and twisting my body to see the tiny laptop screen (a large monitor back home on a desk, thus placing my knees under the keyboard).  I had excruciating neck pain for the two weeks, at first thinking it exhaustion, but finally figuring out the trigger was contorting my body to type and read what I typed.  This will be a note to myself during my next visit.

But since the chest of drawers was filled with the teenager’s clothing and there was not enough room to work out of my large suitcase, I repurposed my trunk organizer.  I love the primary purpose of the organizer.  It has sturdy enough sides to put bags of crushable dry goods in one compartment, produce in another, and canned goods in the third.  Or whatever you are purchasing.  Then grab it by the two handles and carry everything into the house – unless it is too heavy.

The organizer can be broken down to fit in a very small space, so I always take it with me in that fashion on trips.  On this trip, I turned it into my own chest of drawers.  Socks in one small compartment.  Folded pajamas and sweatpants in another small compartment.  The large compartment was for underwear, shirts and shorts.  In the photo, it looks like I had thrown receipts in one compartment.  I was afforded some closet space for my shirts, pants, and dress coat (two funeral memorials and church).

This went great on the trip.  I was able to keep the bed free of stuff that had to be moved in order to sleep and I had adequate floor space to move around.  But when the pieces of the box are reconstructed, now that I am home, it will go back to its original purpose.

When we become Christians, it may not seem obvious at first, but we have been repurposed ourselves.  Most people look at babies and think of them as innocent little cute bundles of love, but they are self-centered to the hilt.  If they are hungry, they cry.  If they are wet, they cry.  If they have left solid matter in their diaper, they cry.  If they find that getting Mommy’s undivided attention is a nice thing, they cry even more lustily than the crying for the other things.  I say this in that one of our offspring was not that interested in Mommy’s hugs and kisses.  Yes, they are innocent in that they do not know anything other than hungry, wet, and dirty are not nice sensations.  But let’s face it, they are only thinking of themselves until they get older and learn there are other people around who also want their own space.

And sadly, we often grow up self-centered.  We often look out for ourselves and only think of others when it pertains to us.  That thinking of others could be how to keep peace in the household or a tit for tat situation, doing something nice for something else nice in return.

But, when we accept Jesus, the first question in the Catechism comes into play.  What is the chief end of man? Or what is man’s purpose?  The answer is to worship and glorify God.  The two Scriptures from the Psalms above allude to that.

We have not just been repurposed, we are a new creation.  But occasionally, we mess up.  We sin when we take our eyes off Jesus and forget our new true purpose in life.  For us it is sin.  For my organizer, it is going back to its primary purpose.  For us to return to our primary purpose, we need to turn from the sin and back to Jesus.  In other words, we need to repent.

Okay, I talked about being a Christian a bit and I provided a life hack in repurposing a trunk organizer.  I guess this was a two-fer post, two posts in one.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.