Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

• 2 Corinthians 3:4-6

Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

• 2 Corinthians 12:6-10

“All our offerings, whether of music or martyrdom, are like the intrinsically worthless present of a child, which a father values indeed, but values only for the intention.”

• C.S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, “On Church Music”

This is the anniversary of the passing of C.S. Lewis.  Few noticed on that day, 22 November 1963.  That same day Aldus Huxley died, but the day is remembered by those old enough to remember the day for John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Even as a young boy, I knew that the report of the Warren Commission was hiding something when the records would be sealed for decades.  Recently I heard someone leave the opening of some of the records and the autopsy showed four rounds fired from two totally different directions, and Oswald had a bolt-action rifle, incapable of firing that rapidly, at best two hasty shots without reestablishing an aim point between them.  We may never know.

But since this is the anniversary of C.S. Lewis and a week from today is the anniversary of his birth, I thought I would have a mini-series on his thoughts about giving.

Here, he paints a beautiful picture of a father who sees the hen scratching of a child.  You have to ask what the picture is.  And then the father frames the picture.  It did not matter that the picture was unrecognizable, his child had drawn it.

Lewis compares this to our best efforts.  I agree.  I have heard pastors say that God has our first-grade artwork on His refrigerator door.  Then, the pastor may have been thinking of this quote from C.S. Lewis.

I have been using a mousepad made of artwork that my youngest grandson drew.  I showed him the mousepad and told him that I use it everyday, and I think of him every time I use it.  He sighed.  He said how pathetic it was and how he could do so much better now.  He’s eleven.  Maybe someday when he grows up, he will understand what I was saying.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.