Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Lovethe Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

• Deuteronomy 6:5

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

• 1 John 4:7-21

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

• John 15:13

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

• Galatians 5:19-26

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

Last week, Babs felt that she did not deserve the wonderful life she had received.

This week, she was deep in her thoughts.

“Babs,” I asked, “I am not making the mistake again about your thoughts being only worth a penny, as in ‘Penny for your thoughts.’  But you seem to have something on your mind.”

Babs moaned.  “Harold, do you have any idea what love is?”

I shrugged.  “I love you.  Does that have an element of insanity in it?”

Babs sighed, “Harold!  Shame on you!  I am trying to be serious.”

I groaned, “Okay then, let’s look at what the Bible says.  First Corinthians 13 talks about love being patient and kind.  Love is not envious, boastful, or proud.  Love does not dishonor others.  Love is not self-seeking or easily angered.  And do you remember the last time I let you down?”

Babs shrugged, “No.”

I smiled, “Then you are doing that part right.  Love never keeps a record of when someone messes up.”

Babs asked, “Can we live like that?  I hear some loving people at church talk about ‘I remember when you la dee da’  I can’t remember what they said, but they remembered when their spouse had not quite performed up to par.”

I smiled, “Love is about like everything else Jesus set the standard for.  We are human and we are not going to measure up.  But that does not mean that we do not have the desire.  That does not mean that we quit trying to measure up.”

Babs sighed, “I read Deuteronomy 6:5, often, and if I have loved God with all my heart, soul, and strength, what do I still have left to love anyone else?!”

I snickered, “That’s where 1 John 4 comes into play, Babs.  God gives us that love right back.  We do not love God as much as God loves us.  He loved us first.”

Babs sighed, “Why, Harold?  When you look at all the acts of the flesh in Galatians 5, I almost did all those things.  I cannot deny them.  I have them on DvD.”

I asked.  “Babs, didn’t you throw those things away?”

Babs groaned, “I thought about it.  Then I thought in another ten years, you might have to look at the old me to have a chance at being able to perform.”

I smiled, “Babs, have you not read the studies that say that once you look at adult films for a while, they prevent you from performing unless you are watching them.  It’s something to do with triggering certain hormones.  Your body aligns itself with certain hormones in order to perform and then not getting that visual, you just cannot perform anymore.”

Babs grumbled, “But Harold, it isn’t just you getting older.  What if I wake up one morning and feel that I am dragging myself to the bathroom.  Then I look down, and I am literally dragging my upper frontals to the bathroom.  I guess that would make them lower frontals, but then who would know what you were talking about?”

I smiled, “You have gravity being unkind.  Men have shrinkage.”

Babs giggled, “I have the formula from my old job.  As long as your heart holds up, you will be something other than shrunk.”

I smiled, “Can we finally get around to talking about 1 John 4?  Let’s go to the living room.  We can sit on the loveseat and snuggle.”

Babs said, fanning herself, “Oh, Harold.  How will I be able to keep my hands off you?”

I laughed.  “I was hoping that you wouldn’t.  But we might need to stop if you overreach the boundaries.”

Babs sighed, “I’ll take my chances, but you might have to spank me.”

I moaned, “Babs, I may not have the energy to do that.”

She giggled.  We turned the lights off except for the lamp on my side of the loveseat.  She curled her legs up and laid her head on my shoulder.

I said, “John writes in his letter that if we do not love, we do not know God, for God is love.”

Babs asked, “Is the corollary true?  You know, if you do not know God, you do not love?”

I groaned, “I hope you did not say that to someone.  They might get angry.  They equate a certain emotion to love, a certain bond between people.  But God loved us while we were sinners.  God loved us from the dawn of time.  There is no limit on God’s love, but we must be purified by the blood of Christ in order to be in His presence in paradise.”

Babs asked, “Didn’t Jesus eat in the homes of sinners?”

I nodded, “Yes, but in a few places, the Bible talks about Jesus becoming less.  He was one hundred percent man and one hundred percent God.  But then on the Mount of Transfiguration and when He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos, Jesus looked a lot different.  Jesus had to tone it down so that He could dwell among us.  He was still powerful.  He was still perfect.  But He was less than the Father during those years.  And don’t ask any more.  That’s my limit.  But back to the nonbeliever’s love.  God has no strings attached, but we have plenty of strings.  I had a friend at work who came to Tracy from four states over and if he did not attend Thanksgiving dinner at his Mom’s house, he did not love her.  Sure, there was love there, but there were stated conditions, and it might take a few years, but Mom would forgive him for being in Thailand on a project one year at Thanksgiving.  His Mom could not believe that he worked that day.  At one time, I had Canadian customers, and I could not see them one week because it was Victoria Day, so they postponed me to the next Monday, Memorial Day in the USA.  And while we are on the subject of Canada, their Thanksgiving is in October.  But my friend’s Mom took a couple of years to get over him not being there.  So, do nonbelievers love?  Yes, but they never will understand true unconditional love until they know God.  You know that Jesus said there is no love greater than when one person gives up his life for another.  That adds sacrificial love which unbelievers might draw the line at that.”

Babs asked, “But in that same passage in First John 4, it talks about not fearing if we love God, but Proverbs talks about how fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.  Do we have to lose our wisdom to love God?”

I sighed, “There is two kinds of fear, Babs.  There is morbid terror that God will punish us.  That is the context of the fear mentioned in 1 John 4.  God has no reason to punish us for He has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West.  But we have a healthy fear, knowing how awesome God is and how insignificant we are.”

Babs shrugged, I could tell because her head shifted on my shoulder.  “But we still suffer.  Isn’t that punishment?”

I moaned, “Babs, when you read through the book of Job, you must put on a filter.  With nonbelievers, sure there can be punishment.  But when we suffer alongside our nonbelieving friends, we are having a test of faith.  Remember that Job was not sinless, but he was blameless and his suffering stemmed from a test when Satan and God argued about him.  Then it is Job’s friends that mention the punishment that comes from the secular understanding of God.”

Babs sighed, “I would put that on my to-do list to get one of those filters, but I have my arms wrapped around the arm of my man at the moment.”

I moaned, “I know, and my hand is falling asleep, but don’t let go.  I kind of like it.”  Babs snickered.  I continued, “And this passage from 1 John ends with the test of whether we love our brother or sister.  If we don’t, then we do not love God.”

Babs sighed, “I was an only child.  What then?”

I snickered, “Do not think of that literally, Babs.  Change brother and sister to neighbor.  John was saying those familial words to mean our fellow human beings on this planet.  But you brought up Galatians and the acts of the flesh.”

Babs whimpered, “Please, don’t list them.  It starts with sexual immorality and ends with orgies.  I did the bookends a lot, and I might have dabbled in a few in between.  I cry every time I read that verse.”

I smiled, “But Babs, keep reading.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and on and on.  So, back to your question about how we can love others when we have given everything to God in that regard.  What is the first fruit in that list and where does it come from?”

Babs did not answer.  I grumbled, “Babs, you have unbuttoned my shirt!  Every button!”

Babs moaned, “Yeah, you are wearing a T-shirt, so disappointing.”

“Babs,” I said, trying not to laugh, “You did not answer my question.”

Babs snickered, “Yeah, I was doing the unbuttoning thing to buy some time, but the first fruit in the list is love, and it comes from the Holy Spirit.  So, God is love and He gives to us with great generosity.”

Then she leaned in close and kissed me.  And as we kissed, she started counting my ribs with her fingers.  When I started to do the same, she said, “Harold, stop it.  I’m a lady.”

Then she laughed and placed her head back on my shoulder and fell asleep.  I slid out from underneath her and propped her head with throw pillows.  I got a blanket and covered her.  When I awoke the next morning, she had already gotten up and returned to her apartment upstairs.

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.

And early in our marriage, my wife was very playful.  Somehow that was toned down as we got older.  Maybe we should have rekindled that.

Maybe the reason why the divorce rate is high is that we do not love with that sacrificial love that God speaks of.  When things get difficult, we start remembering those faults we were supposed to not keep a record of.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.