Straight Paths- A Right Relationship to the Son

A Right Relationship to the Son

Loren Hardin

The Ashland Beacon

     I’m deviating from my typical hospice patient story to share an experience I had over thirty years ago. I left the house around six-thirty that morning for my daily 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, dawned those beautiful pastel pinks and blues that herald the sunrise. It was breathtaking, so I stopped for a moment to relish it. The sun was glowing deep amber as it slowly peaked over the roofs of the houses on Baird Avenue, casting shifting shadows as it rose. 

     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 realized that a large white marble tombstone had been reflecting the sun. Then I heard that “still small voice” of God (I Kings 19:12); “You are like that tombstone. You can only reflect my light by maintaining a right relationship to The Son.”  God’s glory and grace has a way of catching us by surprise, doesn’t it?

     Tim Keller, pastor, and teacher, contends that mankind is in search of redemption.  In his book, “Counterfeit Gods” he shared an excerpt from an interview with the pop star Madonna in which she describes her lifelong search for redemption:  “I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy…I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting…My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove that I’m somebody.  My struggle has never ended, and it probably never will.” 

    I’ve come to realize and believe that redemption isn’t psychological, intellectual, emotional, occupational, social, financial, or even behavioral.  It is attitudinal, positional, and prepositional; in, through and by Christ Jesus; by establishing and maintaining a right relationship to the Son.

     “Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only – My Utmost for Your highest.  I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone…,” (Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest”, January 1).

     Loren Hardin was a social worker with SOMC-Hospice for twenty-nine years. He can be reached at 740-357-6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren's book, "Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course” at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.