Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.
Keep your mouth free of perversity;
    keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.
Do not turn to the right or the left;
    keep your foot from evil.

• Proverbs 4:23-27

“Pray with any regularity, and soon other distractions will interfere. The UPS truck shows up. The baby throws cereal all over the carpet. The washing machine overruns. An outdoor sprinkler starts spraying the neighbor’s yard. The dog dashes through the house with muddy paws. Against all mathematical odds, these interruptions seem to multiply during prayer times.
“Thomas à Kempis, celebrated author of The Imitation of Christ, reports that when he tried to focus on heavenly things a rout of carnal temptations would rush upon him.”

• Philip Yancey, Prayer

From the point when I was looking through my notes and finding this quote from Philip Yancey to actually starting to write anything…

I took a shower.  I had a snack.  I sat and watched two or three plays of a football game.  I drank some water and then I realized I had bought some egg nog (just the plain stuff in the carton).

I was about ready to type something, but then my brain said “Cheese, please.”

For about two years after my wife passed away, I would stop writing and run upstairs.  When I got upstairs, I thought that I had no reason to go up the stairs.  I did not have to go to the restroom.  I was not hungry or thirsty.  The doorbell was not ringing.  It was not time to start checking the mailbox for deliveries.

Then, I realized that when my wife was still alive, and she had her many infirmities, I had this internal clock that said that I needed to check on her.  My conscious mind did not kick in to override the impulse until I was already upstairs.  Once I learned what I was doing, I still do it, but rarely.  I usually wait until I have to do something.

Yancey went on in his book to talk about others that had their prayer interrupted by a squeaking door hinge or a passing vehicle.

But recently I was watching a ballgame, and the thought came to me that I did not care who was winning the game.  I had turned the television on to have some noise in the background while I ate my lunch.

Einstein said that the average person uses only ten percent of their brain.  When it comes to our available time to praise God and do His will on this earth, how little of that available time is actually spent doing what we should do?

When I become driven and goal focused, I think God puts distractions in my way to slow me down and force me to relax, but the evil forces around me make those relaxing moments feel better than they actually are.  And the next thing I know is that two hours have passed, and nothing got done.

But once my mind is focused, I can accomplish something, like finishing this bit of writing.

How is it possible?  By listening to that quiet voice to get back to work, a lot of prayer, and God giving me the strength.

I owe completion to Him.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.