Straight Paths- A Man Leaves His Darkness When He Follows the Son

A Man Leaves His Darkness When He Follows the Son

Loren Hardin

The Ashland Beacon

              I’m deviating from my typical hospice patient story this week to share a personal experience. I left the house around six-thirty that morning for my one-mile trek to work at Mercy Hospital.  I rounded the corner and headed west on Grant Street for about three blocks and then turned north, cutting through Greenlawn Cemetery.  The morning sky to my right was painted with those beautiful pastel pinks and blues that herald the sunrise on a clear morning. It was breathtaking, so I stopped for a moment just to try to take it all in. The sun was glowing deep amber as it slowly peaked over the roofs of the houses on Baird Avenue, casting shifting shadows all around me as it rose.  I wanted to stay longer but I had to get to work.   

             As I continued walking north a blinding light emerged at ground level on my left.  If you didn’t know better, you would think that another sun was rising in the west. As I continued walking, my perspective changed, and I saw that it had been a white marble tombstone merely reflecting the sun. Then I heard that “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12) “You are like that tombstone. You can only reflect my light by maintaining a right relationship to the Son.” 

             At the fear of being too casual I’ve said to God on several occasions, “Lord, I’m starting to connect the dots with You. I’ve noticed that You have a way of catching us off guard, of catching us by surprise”.  How I’ve come to love and look forward to God’s surprise visits! 

Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven,” (Matthew 5:16). But we can’t humanly generate the light. Just like that white marble tombstone in the cemetery that morning, the only way we can do this is by maintaining and right relationship to the Son. Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), Scottish evangelist and teacher understand the vital necessity of maintaining and right relationship to the Son and encourages us to “Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only – My Utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone,” (“My Utmost for His Highest”, Jan. 1). 

            Finally, I leave you with the lyrics of a song written by Larry Norman (1947 – 2008), Christian musician, singer, and songwriter, one of the pioneers of Christian rock music. It’s been fifty-three years since “The Great American Novel” was released in 1972, but it is remarkably still relevant today:  

“The politicians all make speeches while the newsmen all take note,

And they exaggerate the issues as they shove them down our      throats.

Is it really up to them whether this country sinks or floats?

Well, I wonder who would lead us if none of us would vote…

And your money says in God we trust,

But it's against the law to pray in school…

You say all men are equal; all men are brothers,

Then why are the rich more equal than others?

“Don't ask me for the answer, I've only got one,

That a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son.”

     Loren Hardin was a social worker with Southern Ohio Medical Center Hospice for twenty-seven years. You can purchase a copy of his book, “Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course”, from Amazon.