JAC Online

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.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

   

 

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