Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

• Exodus 34:14

Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

• Jeremiah 25:6

Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;

• Deuteronomy 6:14

This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
    or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
    though the nations are terrified by them.
For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
    they cut a tree out of the forest,
    and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
    they fasten it with hammer and nails
    so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,
    their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
    because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
    they can do no harm
    nor can they do any good.”

• Jeremiah 10:2-5

Pour out your wrath on the nations
    that do not acknowledge you,
    on the peoples who do not call on your name.
For they have devoured Jacob;
    they have devoured him completely
    and destroyed his homeland.

• Jeremiah 10:25

You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.

• Ezekiel 16:17

The prophets prophesy lies,
    the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
    But what will you do in the end?

• Jeremiah 5:31

Do two walk together
    unless they have agreed to do so?

• Amos 3:3

Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.

• Jeremiah 2:11

All who worship images are put to shame,
    those who boast in idols—
    worship him, all you gods!

• Psalm 97:7

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

Earlier this week, Babs and I had a gloriously lazy Labor Day, but I think she was hinting that I was shirking my duties.  But I wasn’t.  I had supper in a couple of slow cookers.

But by the end of the week, she was again complaining about my shortcomings.  I hope this will not be the start of our married life, being reminded of where I come short.

Babs chided, bluntly.  “Harold, you said you were not much of a football fan.  You said you had no false gods, but what was that performance of yours last night?”

I protested, “Babs!  It was the NFL Kickoff Game.  And if you ask, I have no idea who won the game.  So, how is that worshipping the sport?  Is it worshipping one of the teams?  As usual, the Super Bowl winner from last year was one of the teams.  The opponent this year was their bitter rival.”

Babs sighed, “But when the game started, all you did was stare at the screen.  You did not even answer me when I asked questions.  You know, I do not know much about football, and you could have taught me something.  I have heard the ladies at church talk about how they are planning to have parties amongst the ladies to lament being football widows, but I defended you.  They said, ‘Just wait.  They are all alike!’  And they were right.”

I sighed, “Babs, I remember about the first ten minutes of the game.  It was a night game and Tracy was not playing.  I was only interested because the new season had begun.  When the season starts, you have about 80 percent of the teams that might have a good season.  There are those teams that have false hope because something always seems to go wrong.  And there are some teams that show promise, but then one important player gets hurt and their season goes down the tubes.  In that first game though, there is hope until reality hits.  And frankly, I missed everything.”

Babs replied, “But Harold, how could you say that you missed everything.  I saw your eyes were open.  Little slivers, but they were not closed.  You had to be awake.”

I sighed, “Babs, I see an ophthalmologist concerning my dry eye condition, and he suspects that I sleep with my eyes slightly open.  I am asleep, so I do not blink, but air gets to the cornea and dries it out.  I wake up each morning in pain and my eyes do not focus for quite some time.”

Babs sighed, “I’ve never noticed, Harold.  I am sorry.”

I groaned, “Don’t worry about it.  My warm compresses work, and if I would remember to use them, the pain would be a lot less.  But you do not notice because we do not sleep together.  You usually come down mid-morning to greet me, and by then my eyes are normal.”

Babs snickered, “Are you saying that there is something that is normal about you, Harold?  I think all your little quirts are kind of cute.”

I moaned, “I modify my statement to say that my eyes are normal for my usual state of being.  Does that define it to match what you think are cute quirks?””

Babs giggled.  Then she leaned in and kissed me on the head, “I will let that pass, but I want a Bible Study about worship of false gods, and since it came to mind last night when I thought you were comatose in front of the television, while watching a football game, let’s relate the Bible verses to football.”

I smiled, “Yes, Babs, we can do that but remember that the other sports would also apply.  And then we could apply the same verses to television shows and movies and video games.  Whatever there is in this world that distracts us from God.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Please, Harold, not my soap operas!”

I groaned, “I am going to have to rethink this marriage proposal.  I do not want to be married to a soap opera addict.”

Babs replied, “Harold, no, I was just testing you.  I never watch the stuff.  Is ‘As the Stomach Turns’ still on the air?”

I countered, “I think you mean ‘As the World Turns’ and the show has been off the air for more than a decade.  And why did you pick on that one?”

Babs huffed, “I did an audition as I was getting older.  With experience in front and behind the camera, I thought I could get in at an entry level position and move up, but they definitely do not like former porn stars.”

I smiled, “I like a former porn star.  I know what is in her heart, and that change had probably not happened when you auditioned.”

Babs shook her head, “Nope.  But besides the first two commandments, Exodus 34 reiterates that God is a jealous God.  He even gives Himself the name Jealous.”

I laughed, “God claiming to be jealous is not the same thing that God prohibits us doing in the Tenth Commandment.  God loves us and He wants us to realize that we would be nothing if He had not created us.  And He also tends to our needs.  I have used an illustration when I talk to people that say God is jealous, so He cannot be perfect.  I tell them that if they created something that was alive and sentient, meaning it could think, and then that thing turns its back on you and loves something that it made from the other things you created, what would you do?  I give the example of a doll in a dollhouse, and every morning you find the doll trying to escape out the window of your bedroom.  Most of them, at least those that can grasp the concept, agree that they’d find another doll.  So, God made us because He loves us and when we do not love Him in return, He keeps loving us.  But there is still that law that says if we do not believe, our sins are not washed clean, and we will be unable to be in God’s presence in the next life.  But, in using my doll example, most people around Tracy would throw that bad doll in the dumpster and start over.  God gives us another chance, up until we breathe no more.  But even in God’s love, He says in Jeremiah 25 for us to not cause Him to get angry.  His anger is a just anger, not like ours, but have you ever seen a toxic relationship between a parent and a child?  The parent gets angry, but after decades, they do not get angry anymore.  They have met their limit, and they tell the child, maybe not in words, that they refuse to be hurt by the child’s rebellion.  That anger might not be the right response, but it was born from the hurt that only love can feel.  When you quit loving, the rebellion does not matter anymore.”

Babs asked, “Can a parent do that, Harold?”

I shrugged, “I have experienced it, but that is probably an act to fool their friends and maybe the rebellious children, but I am sure they go home at night and weep bitterly when no one else is watching.  But I bring up the rebellious child because that is what we are before our Heavenly Father.  And much of it started for the Israelites by simply getting to know their neighbors.”

Babs scrunched her nose, “Deuteronomy 6 talks about not following the gods of other nations around them.  And Jeremiah 10 says that the Chosen People have cut down a tree and fashioned an idol like the other nations have done.”

I nodded, “And God told Jeremiah that these carvings are not feared, but they cannot hear you either.  They cannot save you when you find yourself in trouble.  So, later on in the chapter, Jeremiah asks God to pour wrath down on these nations that lead God’s people astray.  But as we know, we live in this fallen world, and we must find our way in not being tricked by such deceivers.”

Babs asked, “What does Ezekiel 16:17 mean?”

I groaned, “Okay, God gave Israel great riches.  Then, Israel worshipped other gods, adorning those gods with the jewelry God had provided the people with.  And some of those gods used shrine prostitutes.  Thus, there was physical prostitution going on, but there was a spiritual prostitution in that they gave riches to these false gods and did unspeakable acts in the process of that worship.”

Babs asked, “What about Jeremiah 5:31?  They cannot be talking about Jeremiah.”

I smiled, “No.  The false prophets weave in and out of the entire book of Jeremiah.  The people love it that the false prophets lie, and the priests go along with the sinful activities.  That way, the people have someone to blame if it does not work out.  And, I know you want to relate this to football, but some otherwise wholesome movies put one cuss word in to bump the rating.  Vulgarity, sex, and violence sells on the silver screen.  That is until it goes to the X stuff and that sells, but in back alleys and adult bookstores.”

Babs groaned, “That was decades ago.  It is all over your phone and computer now.  You don’t have to leave your living room.  But my next question is about Amos 3:3.”

I sighed, “Okay, let’s say you have a rabbit’s foot in your pocket.”

Babs snarled, “Why would I do that?!”

“Babs, play along.” I sighed.

Babs said, “I am wearing a dress without pockets.  Why don’t you have a rabbit’s foot in your pocket?”

I moaned, “Okay, I have a rabbit’s foot in my pocket.  Now, what if God asks me how the rabbit’s foot got there?”

Babs shrugged, “It’s your rabbit’s foot.  It is your analogy.  I am just here to learn.”  She batted her eyelashes, trying to look innocent.

I growled, “I will tell God that my future wife gave me the rabbit’s foot because she did not have a pocket to put it in.”

“Ouch!” Babs groaned, “That analogy made an ugly turn.  Didn’t it?”

I laughed, “Sorry, Babs, but Amos 3:3 says that if you walk with a false god in your pocket, it got there because you allowed it to be there.  Almighty God is not to blame.  It is on you.  So, getting to talking about football.  I turned the game on last night.  I intended to watch the game.  I set myself up to be exposed to the worship of a false god, and Tracy was not even playing.”

Babs laughed, “But thinking of Tracy, are they going to have a winning season?”

I shrugged, “As long as they don’t have a key player get hurt.  They are rather thin here or there in the lineup.  That does not mean that I idolize any of the starters.  I just recognize their prowess.  But an injury can remove that prowess in a hurry.  Thus, why idolize them.  They are not gods.”

Babs started laughing, “There are a couple of teams in the league that change their gods every year.  They say with these new players that they are a totally different team.  But then, they lose like they always do.”

I laughed, “That is what God was saying in Jeremiah 2:11.  Nations do not change their gods, but Israel did.  In the USA, baseball used to be king, but now everything revolves around football, and the players on the team that everyone worships change constantly.”

Babs sighed, “So, Psalm 97:7 says that we are ourselves put to shame when we worship false gods.”

I nodded, “Yeah, Tracy could have a winning record and in position for a playoff push and then the quarterback could get injured and we miss the playoffs.  So, then your cousin in Philadelphia or Kansas City will be laughing.”

Babs sighed, “Thank you for those words of encouragement.  I do not have a cousin in either of those two cities.  Not that I know of.”

I laughed, “You know what I meant.  But thinking of the maybe, maybe not Tracy teams, if I play my cards right, I might get us invited to the Dala Enterprises private box.”

Babs giggled, “I will not worship the team or Dala Enterprises, but that sounds nice.  I hear they have good food in those private boxes.”

I smiled, “I have not been to a game in decades, always out of town.  I can bring it up when I meet with Amy and Ralph E. next week.”

“Goodie!”

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.

I was a conflicted Christian early in our marriage.  I loved sports, and my wife chided me often, even before she accepted Jesus.

As for sleeping with my eyes open, my ophthalmologist insists I leave my eyes slightly open, but the warm compresses work.  Sometimes, I just get too busy writing these stories to take a seven-minute break.  And there was a seven-minute pause in writing this, for I had forgotten to do the compress today…

And although I often have a sports event on the television, I might be hard pressed to tell you the score.  My response might be, “There has been a lot of yelling, so I think the home team might be ahead.” But then again, I often find sports a means of taking naps.

And would someone whisper in Harold’s ear that Philadelphia beat Dallas 24-20. Sure, he slept through the game, but …

And other than baseball games, I have been to no sporting events in the Pittsburgh area.  I could never afford the tickets to one game, and I worked with people who had season tickets.  As some of the Scriptures here hint at, you worship where your money goes.  I guess I worship chocolate, but I am cutting back considerably.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.