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.