Mid-life crisis? Was this among the circumstances of 40-year
old Adelaide Pollard as she contemplated her situation in 1902? She must have
felt, as many do at one or multiple times in their lives, that she’d reached a
point where she was passionate to do something, yet was frustrated by the
hurdle in her way. Was her desire not something good for His kingdom, she
wondered? Has he not put this aspiration inside me? And then, in quite an
unexpected way, she encountered someone she’d never met before, who spoke
something that got inside her. Though certain of His will before this incident,
Adelaide must have concluded that she needed to say “Have Thine Own Way” more
deeply and intently. She needed to be like potter’s clay (maybe like the one I
made many years ago, shown here).
Adelaide Pollard was part of several ministries for God for many
years before and after the turn of the 20th Century, and so was
accustomed to following wherever He seemed to be leading. She’d been a teacher,
including as a bible instructor, in the Chicago area in the 1880s. She also had
followed and participated in the work of two evangelists prior to turning 40,
the second of which was in New England. It was there that she was keenly motivated
to seek missionary work in Africa, yet bitterly disappointed in her drive to
raise funds for the trip. Perhaps she’d poured out her soul over this deep regret
to a group at a prayer service one night, for it was there that an anonymous
old woman said something that germinated deep within Adelaide. Was it the wisdom
that comes from experience, perhaps some distress in her own life, which caused
the elderly woman to pray the words that Pollard used later that same night as
her hymn title? Not only had the old woman’s words pierced her; Adelaide also found
inspiration from an ancient writer, someone who might identify with her
emotional state – Jeremiah. This prophet’s imagery of a potter (Jeremiah 18:3-4)
found its way into her response in the hymn. In submissive words, she speaks of
putting aside her own agenda in favor of His. Interestingly, many years later,
she actually did go to Africa briefly. She then spent the war years (World War
I) in Scotland before returning to the U.S. in the postwar era.
So, could it be that part of her surrender to Him meant
moving about on His timetable?
How would Adelaide Pollard answer? Besides moving physically
several times in her 72 years, she must have more than once moved emotionally-spiritually.
Pollard is credited with writing perhaps a few dozen hymns, but among them are
several with titles that suggest she surrendered again and again to what He
wanted her to do. “Have Thine Own Way” wasn’t just one episode of Adelaide
Pollard’s story, but really rather like a window we can peer through to see
what’s inside. Are there windows about me, which others may be looking through?
What do they see? Maybe it should be Who
they see, huh?
See more information on the song discussed above in 101 More
Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; Then Sings
My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan,
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003; Amazing Grace
– 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; and
The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise
Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc.
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