Vance Havner-How did you get along?

“I am homeward bound once more and riding on the old Carolina Special on a summer afternoon.  I have just passed the little town of Newton, not far from my boyhood home.  There is a new railroad station, built since my early days, but the old one still stands down the track a short distance away.  As I rode by, I thought of days long past when I returned from preaching trips and father met me there. 

I can see him yet standing by that old Ford in that unpressed blue serge suit.  When I came up to where he stood he never failed to ask, “how did you get along?”  It has been along time since he last met me there.  Time has done things to me, but of one thing I am glad-I am still doing what he always hoped I would do to the end.  Just how it is where he now dwells I know only in part.  How much he knows of what goes on here I cannot say.   I do have a feeling that one day when I report to Headquarters he will be on hand and it would seem just right to hear him say, “how did you get along?” 

As today long after, I ride past the old depot where so often dad asked his question, my soul breathes a prayer that I may finish my course with joy.  For what matters most in this brief pilgrimage is that we quit ourselves like men, that we do not disappoint those who dreamed largely and prayed hopefully for us when we gave scantiest promise-and above all, that we be able to report well to the Great Overseer and merit His, “Well done.”  Blunders we will make and failures will shame our faces and dampen our eyes.  But if we can manage to forget the things that lie behind, and press on for the prize.  It will pay off beyond all reckoning when we meet with the King of Kings, and by grace we tell how we got along.