Straight Paths- Their Works Follow Them

Their Works Follow Them

Loren Hardin

             This is part two of a two-part series about Jun and his wife, Pat. Jun enrolled in our outpatient hospice service with end-stage cancer. He was a veteran of the Korean Conflict and a retired postmaster. Jun was soft-spoken, gentle, and tender to the needs and hopes of others. Pat recounted, “He was always doing something for somebody, but you’d never know it.”  Pat’s testimony reminds me of the exhortation of Christ Jesus; “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men,” (Matthew 6:1-2).   

               The following quote about heroism reminds me of Jun, “To live well in the quiet routine of life; to fill a little space because God wills it; to go on cheerfully with a petty round of little duties and little avocations; to smile for the joys of others when the heart is aching—who does this, his works will follow him. He is one of God’s heroes,” (Frederick William Farrar, 1831-1903).  

                         No one considered Jun more of a hero than his mother-in-law, Laurie. Pat reflected: “Mom loved Jun more than anything in this world. He told mom that as long as he was around that she would never have to go to a nursing home. Jun would carry mom from the bedroom to the couch every morning and then back every night. When she didn’t recognize anyone else, she still recognized Jun. She would look up and smile at him like a little kid and say, ‘hi June’”.  

             I met with Pat shortly after Jun’s departure from this world to his heavenly home and Pat shared, “Something wonderful happened the moment that Jun died. Jun was in the hospital, and he didn’t have anything to eat or drink for three days. He couldn’t swallow. He hadn’t moved or said a word. Our son, Jeff, and I stood by his bed all nightlong holding his hand. Then, all of a sudden, Jun sat straight up in bed, raised up my hand in his, and pointed up with one finger. He kept watching the ceiling. He said, ‘Laurie, is that you?’ He always called my mom, Laurie. He said it three times. Then he said, ‘Yes Laurie, I’m coming up’. Then He fell back on his pillow, and he was gone. He really saw her! Two girls that were working at the hospital that day were so affected by it that they asked for Sunday off so they could go to church. They’d never gone to church before.”  

             “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes’, says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them,’” (Revelation 14:13-14, NKJV). 

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