Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

• Psalms 127:2

Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

• Proverbs 23:4-5

Better one handful with tranquillity
    than two handfuls with toil
    and chasing after the wind.

• Ecclesiastes 4:6

A dream comes when there are many cares,
    and many words mark the speech of a fool.

• Ecclesiastes 5:3

“There can be intemperance in work just as in drink.’”

• C.S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

I like staying ahead of schedule because there are things that come up, like doctor visits that make one day lost to other things.  Then, there could be an event that is totally unexpected.  I experienced the passing of a dear friend followed by a doctor visit.  I nearly lost a week of writing, but that is nothing in comparison to the friend that is now gazing into the eyes of Jesus.

But my reason for staying ahead of schedule is for when I get sick or I have a procedure.

The doctor visit hinted that I will have a procedure in the Spring sometime, but I have a grandson graduating high school about that time.  This is going to get tricky.

But if God wants all this to happen, it will work out.

This little setback started to get me anxious, but I should be anxious for nothing.

And then I remembered what the announcers at a football game say when there is a penalty against the offense.  “Don’t try to make it up in one play.”

That does not compute well to writing, but I can apply the same type of mentality.  I need to get back into a steady rhythm.  I cannot write ten essays in one day, but when I get into a steady groove.  I can write more than two each day.

And now, I have a deadline.  I can expect to use up a lot of the buffer in late April and May or even the first part of June (the school has a date for graduation, but they are not posting the date yet.).

And if I have to suspend a few of the series that I am working on, that is not the end of the world.

Getting anxious about it would be more of a problem.  Getting anxious means that I am trying to do it on my strength, and the only way this will get done is to work using God’s strength.

Forget working hard and trying to catch back up all at once.

Forget working longer hours to catch back up.

In fact, take the Martin Luther approach.  It will be a hard day tomorrow.  I need to spend more time in prayer to prepare for each hard day.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.