Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are filled with joy..

• Psalm 126:1-3

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.

• Isaiah 35:1-2

Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

• Luke 24:2

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

• Philemon 1:7

“Son of man, take up a lament concerning Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:
“‘You are like a lion among the nations;
    you are like a monster in the seas
thrashing about in your streams,
    churning the water with your feet
    and muddying the streams.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“‘With a great throng of people
    I will cast my net over you,
    and they will haul you up in my net.
I will throw you on the land
    and hurl you on the open field.
I will let all the birds of the sky settle on you
    and all the animals of the wild gorge themselves on you.
I will spread your flesh on the mountains
    and fill the valleys with your remains.

• Ezekiel 32:2-5

I came back from the cardiologist the morning that I wrote this post.  I had noticed some odd changes in my body.  He thought some of the symptoms were my GERD issues changing their symptoms.  He had no clue about my fatigue.  But his point was that the EKG was unchanged from the previous, and if my pulse was not doing weird things while those other symptoms occurred, I should not worry.  Besides, they would occur more often than they had if it was a heart issue.  When those issues had occurred, I had the presence of mind to check blood pressure, pulse, and PulseOx frequently before the symptoms passed, always normal.

So, I was in a great mood.  My heart was okay for the moment, and I thought about writing a post about the heart, but then, I wondered about an idiom “Have a Heart.”

The idiom, “Have a Heart” means to be sympathetic, concerned, caring, etc.  Showing mercy would be a means of “having a heart.”  But then, I remembered a time that totally confused me.

I have written before about how the people in my family never smiled much.  Some family members, like my mother, were stone-faced all the time unless required to smile for a photograph.  And even then, a trained eye could see that it was not a genuine smile.

Well, I was the odd person of the family.  When in a tense situation, I made light of it.  I told jokes.

In one particular situation, we were all saddened by what was happening and the prospects of getting out of the situation without scorching a few tail feathers were bleak.

One person offered an “It could be worse…” scenario.  Everyone smiled at the fact that we weren’t in a totally unwinnable situation.

With looking at the lighter side being allowed, and me being about the youngest in the crowd of relatives, I suggested a different ‘It could be worse…’ scenario.  The more jovial of the stone-faced people chuckled.  Not knowing when to quit, I went further down that rabbit hole.  After four or five of these scenarios, each one more farfetched than the previous, everyone, or almost everyone, was laughing.  For a moment, no one was whining about how bleak the prospects were.

And then, it happened.

One of the stoniest of the stone-faced people said, “Have a heart.”

Odd, how some people want to wallow in self-pity and when you brighten their day, they ask for you to show mercy on them so that they can continue to worry, fret, and feel sorry for themselves.

The corollary can be found in C.S. Lewis’ Narnian Chronicles where it says something about how crying is good in its way, but at some point, you have to stop and figure out what to do.

God tells us that there will come a day where there will be great joy.  Let’s not spoil it by asking God to “have a heart.”

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.