Words My Mark

I know… the saying is, “Mark My Words”, but this is my way of helping you see what I saw… learn what I observed, and hopefully get your marks all in the right places… working for you… not working against you.

Marks?

See… getting through life unscathed is quite a daunting task. Now, unscathed may mean something different to you than it does to me… I mean, we all have varying perspectives on things like; quality of life, acceptable treatment, goals to obtain, and even just how willing each of us may be to accomplish something in this life. We may even strive to obtain a certain level of comfort, leave a legacy, make our mark on society, even just the simple guidelines you apply to your life and I apply to mine.

As we journey through the days, the weeks, the years of our lives, events occur that just leave you marked… leave you hurting, scarred, even over-protective and afraid. These marks on our lives do not seem to care whether they impact us physically, emotionally, or spiritually…

§ Things happen

§ We react

§ Marks remain… scars… pain… anguish.

Now notice this… these marks influence our decisions… impact our very plans… direct our core being, even without us being cognizant of them doing it. It is what make us, us… what gives us our character… what shapes our every decisions, it seems.

Me? Due to experiences in my childhood, I was marked with an uncanny distaste, dislike, and cautious nervousness of abandonment. Notice… I said ‘was’!

No… never EVER was I left on someone’s doorstep, therefore now I don’t know who is my family.

No… never EVER had I been rejected out of anger, disappointment, or even just simple selfishness on the part of my family.

Yet, as I crept into my 60s, I came to terms with just how marked I was by childhood events… childhood scenarios… childhood ‘life’. You know… things, events, occurrences that left a quiet “I never want this to happen” feeling in my core being… as I got into my early adulthood, I quietly worked and planned my life so-as to increase the probability of succeeding at avoiding ever experiencing that, again… ever! Though my childhood was rather good, healthy, and frankly ‘fun’, I still had marks… scars… fears. During the last 40+ years, I have subconsciously been protecting that part of my heart… my spirit… my life.

Yet, October of 2017 I came home from work to a Dear John letter, a mostly emptied home, shattered and dismayed betrayal… and then, I received legally filed divorce papers eight days later (not eight business days, either). I am sure we will never really EVER know what others are thinking and why they do what they do that is SO contrary to our own perceptions, our own beliefs and agreements to a ‘life lived civilly’. Once Jesus returns and we get our new bodies, we will no longer be “looking through a glass darkly“, as the Bible says and we’ll have a much clearer understanding.

This is NOT a story about pitiful and jilted Bill… rather, this event (mark on my life) and so many other events in my life have helped me realize that regardless of how pure your heart may be (OK… in my case… a desire to be pure-hearted), how honorable your intentions, or how passionately you strive to ‘do unto others as you would have them to unto you‘, there are events in your life that are going to leave marks… going to leave you with a knee-jerk reaction when any future event comes along that you perceive to be close to this one. There are circumstances you have experienced (or will) that just scarred you, jolted you, even possibly halted you dead in the tracks of your faith… of trust in the Lord… and certainly derailed your walk with the Lord, if not stopped it altogether… one of those “I give up” feelings.

This is more of a story to help you recognize that along your journey of God’s will in your life, you are going to stumble, trip, fall, and crash-n-burn at times. Too often, we get all caught up trying leave a legacy, or make our mark on this world… to leave it better than we found it, as it were. Noble approach, sure… flawed approach, definitely!

While you work, plan, and dream about 'making your mark' in this world, don't let this world make it's mark on you.

This story is much more about God’s mark on our life… God’s calling on our life… and much, much more critical… his very mark in your heart and forehead that He’ll use to ‘separate the sheep from the goats‘, as it were… to separate the believer from the unbeliever… to distinguish ‘the called’ from the wanna-be children of God.