Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

My wife quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:18 in the Christian Standard Bible (CSB).  She had a CSB, but later than when I think these comments were made.  Either the study guide or the devotional that she used quoted the CSB or she looked the verse up online.  She had asked me several times what I felt about one translation or another.  She had an NIV, NASB, NKJV, and the Amplified nearby, but she must have done online searches using the CSB.  I think she did as I have done, read the Message for the sheer enjoyment.

This topic is a hard one for most Christians.  We want to give thanks and praise God in the good times.  Even in the bad times, our praises seem to be focused on how it can get worse.  The temptation to avoid asking a prayer about how it can get worse leads us to think of a superstition.  The old adage that you never pray for patience because God will test your patience almost immediately.  You get the feeling that if you praise God that it could have been worse, it might get worse.

These are superstitions and lead us to trust something other than God.  What better way for Satan to limit our prayer life than to put silly superstitions in our heads.

But when things have not been good, and they have not been good for a very long time, you start to ask why they aren’t better.

My wife and I had so many conversations about this idea of being thankful in all situations, I could not imagine what could have had my wife thinking about this.

But as things got worse for her physically, she kept up the fight.  But she knew where she was going if it “got worse.”

“The great thing with unhappy times is to take them bit by bit, hour by hour, like an illness. It is seldom the present, the exact present, that is unbearable.”

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

We recently had a power outage in our area.  By some unkind circumstance, they ran out of the spare part that was needed to restore my power.  Most of the neighborhood had their electricity back on in 48 hours, but the power for about ten houses was restored in 80 hours.  That meant that hundreds of dollars of food was thrown out, everything in the fridge and deep freezer – a few common exceptions.  But when I told a friend that the deadline was fast approaching and no workers were working (thus, waiting for spare parts), I said that I will either save a lot of food or I will get that much needed defrosting of the freezer done.  It was God’s call.  I’ll inquire about a claim with the insurance company after taking a lot of photographs, but I found a way of seeing the good in a bad situation, a way to praise God.

I think my wife did the same when her body finally showed signs of collapsing.  She was ready and eager to see Jesus face-to-face.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory