What
Might Have Been
by Commissioner Wesley
Harris
IN THE issue of The War
Cry dated May 18th, l912 there appeared a detailed report
of the Festival of Thanksgiving in
London’s Royal Albert Hall celebrating
William Booth’s 83rd birthday.
At that time the Founder had little if any sight and
spoke of an impending operation on his eye which,
unfortunately, was not successful.
He went on to survey what might have been in his life.
He might have searched for wealth or fame.
He might have been involved in one of the political
parties or even started a party of his own! He could have
concentrated on providing housing for the poor or waged war on
the evils of alcoholism. His list of possibilities went on but
then he recognized that under the blessing of God many of the
worthier aims had been realized anyway in and through The
Salvation Army.
Through sacrifice and service had come
great fulfillment in his life.
At an age similar to that reached by the Founder I could echo
his testimony. As
a lad my ambition was to achieve some fame as a journalist.
I became a kid reporter on a local newspaper and could
possibly have spent the rest of my days reporting weddings and
funerals, inquests and court cases together with the social
trivia of the district.
Then I attended Salvation Army youth councils in my native
city. I would like to say that I was captivated by the bible
messages given on that occasion. In fact, that was not the
case. Indeed, I
was somewhat bored at the slow rate in which the speaker’s
pile of notes was reduced!
But God can do great things even
in what might not appear be good meetings! It can be a
case of ‘not by might but by my Spirit says, the Lord’.
During an appeal for candidates the wife of the divisional
youth secretary whispered, ‘What about you, Wesley?’
That was all she said, but it was enough. In that
moment life came into focus for me as the image though a
telescope may become clear when an adjustment is made. I knew
that I was really destined to be a Salvation Army officer and
well over sixty years later that conviction remains
undiminished.
‘What might have been’ appears
fair enough but paltry compared with the rich
experience which has been mine, far better than I could ever
have dreamt possible.
In my youth we used to sing a chorus containing the lines,
‘I’ve never been sorry I answered the call, I’ve never been
sorry I yielded my all!’- and that, in a nutshell, is the
story of my life.
|