Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”
What do people gain from all their labors
    at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
    but the earth remains forever.

• Ecclesiastes 1:1-4

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

• Ecclesiastes 2:11

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.
“Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
    without knowing whose it will finally be.

• Psalm 39:5-6

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

• Proverbs 31:30

I have been slow in muting the television during commercials lately, and the wrinkle cream commercials are back.  Funny how the online reviews do not even mention this product in their top five, but maybe the consumer reporter was getting paid…

But the commercial starts with a woman saying that this is “confidence in a bottle.”

Let me put this as politely as I can muster at the moment.  WHAT?!  You are awfully pathetic that one less wrinkle that will be back with a vengeance tomorrow has given you confidence.  Where is your inner beauty that transcends all wrinkles?

Okay, I am a guy.  Guys cover the important things and then they go out into public.  I have never primped in my life.  And it is definitely too late.

But what is on the inside counts for me.

My wife made me color my mustache for my last interview for a job.  I did not get the job, and I felt like a phony.  The verse from Proverbs says that charm is deceiving.  Well, deceiving in any way is not a good thing.  Leviticus 19:11 Says to not lie and not deceive others.  The distinction is that when you do not tell the truth, you might leave something out that is important, but you did not technically “lie.”  Forget it.  Leviticus 19:11 has that covered either way.

But thinking that one less wrinkle makes you confident?

What do you have on the inside?  Anything at all?

If nothing at all, let me introduce you to a Savior who cares little about that wrinkle.  I met an old soul one time, and the subject came up about wrinkles.  She was asked about her wrinkles.  And she replied, “Wrinkles?  I have no wrinkles.  I have laugh lines because Jesus gave me Joy and I can look trouble in the face and laugh at it.  And for those lines that are not laugh lines, those are hard fought lines of experience.  And with each experience, I got to be a little closer to Jesus.  And I say to those lines, bring ‘em on!”

By the way, she hardly had any wrinkles.  I met a very confident woman many years ago.  She was in her late forties, and she looked like Pruneface, the Dick Tracy villain.  She was a chain smoker and that can happen.  From a distance, she was very attractive, and regardless of what she looked like close up, she was a very confident woman.  She knew her stuff, and she ran her office confidently and competently.

But I have known many people who got lasting confidence by having Jesus in their lives.

And you do not have to reapply the cream the next day with that kind of confidence.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.