Howard Norton

 Good afternoon.

 The day today started off fairly well, in large part due to the rainfall we’ve had the last day or two as well as generally feeling pretty good after a decent night in bed.  At older age, sometimes the nights can get kind of long, but last night was a good one for me.  The air is cool and the trees are showing off some brilliant colors this year.  All in all, the day promised to be a good one.

And it still is; however, opening my social media this morning at work, I discovered that someone who taught at OCU and who I knew otherwise had passed from this life.  Howard Norton was a lion of the church in the Oklahoma City area, and his influence was felt world-wide.  His missionary work in Brazil in earlier days is still being remembered and appreciated, as well as his passion for missions in all of Central and South America.  His time at the College Church on staff as well as his days teaching at OCU, his serving in various capacities in both academia as well as in the church, have left an indelible imprint on the lives of countless thousands who crossed paths with him.

I don’t know if Howard would have remembered me if we had crossed paths a few years ago, but I counted him as a friend and mentor in my earlier days.  Always the gentleman.  Always pleasant to converse with.  Always willing to help.  Always seasoning his speech with salt, as it were and as the Apostle Paul said (Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:6).

Although I am saddened at his passing, I am content knowing of his eternal destiny and the fact that he and I will cross paths again in the New Heavens and New Earth.  I’m betting (can one place a bet in the afterlife?) that he’ll know me then and we’ll have a good conversation about what happened in life following my time at OCU.  I am using today to think back on various interactions I’ve had with Howard, and how, in all probability unknowingly, he helped shape and mold me into who I am today.

He, along with countless other Godly men and women, many of whom I never knew, have crossed my path and have helped me in some way to be here today, doing what I love to do.  I am incredibly humbled by the twists and turns in my life that have brought me here…any one of which over the last 50 or so years would have derailed me and put me in a different place today.

I don’t know if you’ve taken the time to think back over the years at your life and how you arrived at where you are today.  If you haven’t, I urge you to do so, remembering the twists and turns in your life that eventually brought you to where you are today.  Actions have consequences…some good and some not so good.  Some consequences which appeared to be the latter sometimes end up for the good as one’s life plays out.  It’s interesting to me how that works in life and living, and I am continually amazed.

We all make choices in life.  Those choices, in large part, drive us to where we are today.  But sometimes others help us make those choices, or even make those choices on our behalf.  Those choices that others make or help us make also drive us in a certain way.  To the extent that we control our choices, we need to make good ones…choices that benefit not only ourselves, but others as well.  Choices that are good, noble, and right.  Choices that both serve and praise our Lord God.

Howard Norton was a man who knew about choices.  Although imperfect and fallible as he was (and as we all are), his choices moved the Kingdom into places and into hearts that even today are serving and worshipping the living God.

May his example be for us a call to love and serve as he and his Lord and Savior did.

 Blessings.

Heroes All

 Good morning, all.

 I’m not at all sure today that I even want to write out a Thursday Thought for you.  The events of the past days, both locally as well as internationally, are causes for concern, are troubling, and are disconcerting.  Unless you’ve been on a cruise to Mars, you know of the conflict in the Middle East.  The old “eye for an eye” thing is alive and well there, fueled by the centuries-long animosity between the descendants of Isaac and those of Ishmael, sons of Abraham of the Old Testament.  This kind of hatred and retribution does nothing to promote peace, order, or civility; rather, just the opposite is the norm.  And until “eye for an eye” is replaced by “love your neighbor,” this will continue.

In the more local neighborhood, HumanKind will no longer support their traditional winter overflow shelter for the unhoused in the Wichita area.  The announcement was made just a couple of weeks ago, and people are scrambling to find a solution to the winter shelter situation for men in Wichita.  If the powers that be are to be believed, this has been on the table for some time, but only now has come to the forefront, and no solution has as of yet been announced.

I realize there are other hundreds of other issues that are surrounding us locally, nationally, and internationally.  Ukraine.  Medicaid expansion in Kansas.  China.  The mayor race in Wichita.  The teacher shortage.  Taxes.  Gridlock in Washington D.C.  The environment.  The great partisan divide.  Crudeness and incivility in society.  Cancel culture.  Housing.

If you’re like me, you think about these things.  And, the normal response to all of this is that these problems…these issues…are too big for us to even wrap our brains around, let alone do anything of substance about them.  And so we shrug and go about our lives, doing nothing of substance regarding our concerns and fears.

I too become sort of numb to it all.  I spend many an hour on the back patio of our home listening to the sounds coming from the park behind us and thinking about it all.  I too have no answers, and many times don’t even know what questions to ask.  And so all of these issues…all of these problems…all of these concerns…just become sort of jumbled up into a huge ball in my mind; and I am immobilized by it all, incapable of doing anything about any of it.

Then I come to work and look at the wall across from my desk.  There, I’ve put the photos of people I call my heroes.  People who live ordinary lives, doing the ordinary things of life and living…and who are also making a difference in their corners of the world.  Many of them are women.  These people too are very much aware of the issues and problems of the world today.  But rather than being frozen…immobilized…unable to move…these people have created great change for the better in a segment of the world that few sometimes dare to enter.

There’s Jennifer, who battles human trafficking.  Michele, who provides safety for street women who want to get out of that life.  Jessica, who is paving the way for women in a vocation traditionally left to men.  Rachel, who spoke up and caused a sea change in the way we see sexual assault and abuse.  Julie, who works with birth mothers who wish to give their newborns up to adoption to loving families.  Moses, who daily teaches the ways of God to a lost and dying world.  Mark, who risked his life to provide safety for others.  Collin and Kendra, who moved with their family to a neighborhood that was less than ideal in order to share the love of Jesus Christ.  Victor, who mentors young ministers and provides much-needed stability in the churches he serves.  There’s Sam, who shows the world that a disability need not be a barrier to living a rich and full life.

I could go on naming many others who may or may not be on my wall of heroes, but nevertheless every day are bringing kindness, compassion, civility, and positive change to their sphere of influence.  Many of these people are also bringing the Kingdom of God into the hearts and minds of others, telling and better yet showing a better way of life.  Loving God…the first and greatest commandment; and the one like unto it…to love one’s neighbor as one loves oneself.  Beyond even the Golden Rule, loving one’s neighbor is the pinnacle, I believe, of relationships as they should be.  And these people along with countless others are not only seeing, but doing.

Now I think you see why I have a wall of heroes.  In those times when I get down, paralyzed by all that’s happening around me, I see these people and I remember the words of Jesus and I become refreshed and renewed.  I am able to function again and go about my day, doing what I can to renew the creation as God intended.  I may never create a world-wide earthquake of change.  But I can do what I can do, for as long as God allows me to do it.  And that is all I can ask of myself, because that’s all that God asks of me.

 

Blessings,

Read, Listen, Learn, Grow

 Good morning !!

 Thanks for joining me in today’s thought.

 I don’t know about you, but there are parts of the Bible which for me have over the years continued to be somewhat mysterious and not well-understood.  There are entire books of the Bible that I know very little about, even decades after professing my Christian faith.  If you are a Christian, you also probably have parts of the Bible that you don’t understand and couldn’t discuss with any measure of intelligence.

For me, books like Ezekiel, II Peter, and one or two of the Minor Prophets remain mostly a mystery to me.  I’ve studied Revelation rather thoroughly, and although there are many places in that writing that I still don’t understand, at least I think I get the overall viewpoint of the book.  The same goes for most of the prophetic Old Testament books, with one or two exceptions.

Most of us have avoided the Song of Songs all together and have only snippets of knowledge of the Proverbs and the Psalms.  Job can be on the difficult side of the spectrum, and the book of Hebrews is sometimes an issue for some.

As part of what I do at the church, I plan the adult class curriculum.  I’m working now on 2024, and have penciled in the books of Ezekiel and Daniel along with a couple books out of the New Testament for study during the first six or so months of the year.  I’ve found teachers for the New Testament books, but they are few and far between for the Old Testament books.  It seems that Ezekiel and Daniel aren’t on many people’s favorite reading list.

Nor are they on my list.  I know very little about Ezekiel, with the strange visions that are described in the book along with some of the, well, let’s face it…weird…things Ezekiel says he did to get his message across to the people.  Daniel is fairly straightforward until the latter part of the book, again with visions that seem to be really strange and have been subjects of many and varied forms of interpretation over the centuries.

So, facing a dearth of teachers willing to take on these two books, and not knowing much about them myself…especially Ezekiel, I decided to teach the Ezekiel class myself.  I often will do this as a way to learn a part of the Bible story about which I know little.  I am forced to dig in to the book…its history, the characters in it, how it fits with the rest of the Bible story, and the lessons for us today.  This is going to be something that will consume a lot of my time in the next several weeks, but in the end will be well worth it.  And hopefully, I’ll be able to convey what I’ve learned to those in the class so they too will be better informed about a book in the Bible that many avoid.

I say all of that to ask you some questions.  What do you do when you run up against something you know little about, but really need to know more?  Do you think of all of the work that will be necessary to learn about it and decide to procrastinate…put it off indefinitely?  Or do you decide you’re going to, so to speak, tackle it and learn as much as possible about it?  Does learning new things engage you or inspire you in any way?  Or do you consider the whole thing to be some kind of drudgery that has to be done for one reason or another?

It seems to me that considering learning new things to be drudgery…done only because of necessity…betrays a general attitude of indifference, willing ignorance, and laziness.  Regardless of one’s age, I would think that to continue to learn and grow in thought and knowledge would be a mark of one who values life and the incredible opportunities one has in life.

So, just because you at times are thinking that the world is passing you by, or that you are no longer relevant…and, by the way, all of us who are older think those things from time to time…don’t let those thoughts take hold.  Keep your mind active.  Read.  Listen.  Learn.  Grow.  It’s some of the best medicine we can take.

 

Blessings.