Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

• Matthew 11:28-30

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

• 1 Corinthians 10:13

The Scriptures here are taken out of context often.  They seem to be morphed into one.  We forget about how God does the heavy lifting.  And then, when our burdens pile onto our shoulders, we rely on God to not make our burdens more than we can bear.

But God’s promise in the letter to the Corinthians is that our temptations are never more than we can bear and God helps us endure.  We might be near the breaking point, but God allows the brakes to slow the temptation down.  We must learn how to tap into that.  Some people simply tell Satan to take a hike, and that works for them.

On the other hand, Jesus promises to ensure that our burdens are light.  Obviously, if our burdens are light, we never get to that point where we are about to break.

But on the day when I wrote this, I had over 200 emails that I had not read.  I like reading through them and giving people encouragement with either a like or a comment.  But 200?  Some people were not going to get encouragement or I had to block out time to do nothing but read emails.

But why get so far behind?  I was in hyper writing mode.  I did not even think of looking at emails for a couple of days.  But the sad thing was that my blog post status was not improving.  I would do the research.  I started writing and then things did not sound right, or I was not sure about a detail here or there.  I was holding onto my pace but not catching up.

I try to stay ahead of schedule by four weeks.  I have had medical procedures that caused me to lose about two weeks of writing.  My last missed day was about 2750 days ago, when I was admitted into the hospital to have a kidney stone removed.

And thinking of that, I have done tests this week, when writing this, to find out if dietary changes have lessened my propensity to make kidney stones.  If the tests come back with bad news, I might be on the hairy edge of missing a day of posting something.

So, I pulled up these very often quoted Scriptures.

And that is when God did a lot of talking to me.  Sorry, no audible voice.

God asked me, “What burden is bothering you?”  My reply: a lot of them.  We can start with 200 unread emails.

God’s next question, “And where is it written that you have to give 200 signs of encouragement?”  My reply: Umm. I guess that is my idea and not yours.

So, as it turns out, the following are things that I put on myself…

• Replying with encouragement to all the posts that give me an email prompt.
• Writing 13 posts one week and then 14 posts the next, alternating.
• Having something posted every day.
• Doing the heavy research for the Bible studies.

Now, will I maintain doing all those things?  As much as I can, but when I get frustrated and anxious due to my schedule getting too full, I have to put the blame on me.  I can easily maintain 27 posts over a two-week span, a fortnight for those that understand the term.  I will try to encourage as many people as I can.  And I may skip a morning or afternoon post on occasion to keep on track.

But God will grant that clear mind and an anxious-free day here or there to do some catching up.

How do I know?  Because He promises my burden will be light, and my writing pace is light when I do not put the burden on myself.

After all, Jesus promises to do the heavy lifting.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.