Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

• Micah 6:8

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

“Mankind, He has told you what us good and what it is the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

Again, my wife used the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) in quoting Micah 6:8.

This is the last verse that she wrote into her notebook.  I have found another book, but she only answered the questions in the first chapter.  Her penmanship is so small, and she used a light touch with a pencil.  It will be very hard to read, and I will need a better magnifying glass.

So, this will be the last of this series.  At this point, I am leaving things open in this time slot, but I have one short story planned in about three months.  I may just write about what is on my mind until then.

But as for this verse, I think my wife stopped on a good verse.  She definitely worked hard at accomplishing what this verse says.  She was as fair and just as she could be.  She abundantly loved others, often to the detriment of herself.  And she walked humbly with her God.

In her last twenty years plus a few, she made up for the first fifty years.  She did much of the same stuff.  She helped others and she was a servant to all, but she did so with a different purpose.  She glorified God in everything she did for those years.  That part about loving faithfully?  She had that in spades, and it poured out to all around her.

But the word is not faithfully.  It is faithfulness.  And in the NIV, it is translated as Mercy.  Yet, Jesus told us to love one another.  That requires a lot of mercy.  As Corrie ten Boom said, “Lord, I will extend my hand to shake the hand of this man, but you have to provide the feeling.” And in doing so, God provided the feeling we get when we truly lift the burden of our hurts off our shoulders and forgive someone else.  And my wife was learning that.  I think we all have a hard time with that part.

But this verse could easily be a life verse for us.  Carrying it out would be the hard part.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory