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Five Words of Counsel
By Colonel John Bate
Leading up to our retirement on the last day of the century I
was asked the same question on a number of occasions – “If you
had the chance would you do it all over again?”
To me the question is as old as it is ridiculous!
We don’t have the chance to live life over again so
what is the point of the question.
The boyishness within me always wanted to answer “No,
No. I think
I’d try something else” but I was sure the reply would have
been misunderstood! There is the other answer which I have
heard to a similar question – “Yes, I would do it all over
again only I would do it better!”
This, too, I find a little inane as it assumes we could
live a life over again and seems to indicate that the one
being questioned didn’t do his best.
The truth of the matter is that we all try to do our best, at
the moment, considering conditions and opportunities.
Later we may reflect that we could have done better but
conditions and opportunities may have changed, even in five
minutes.
Two hundred years ago John Greenleaf Whittier wrote – “For all
sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these:
“It might have been”. For me that was no way to come to
the end of 41 years of active service as a Salvation Army
officer. So, my
answer to this inappropriate question was always – “I can’t do
it over again – but it was great while I was doing it!”
I have to add, so is retirement!
This reflects an attitude without which I think life would be
drudgery or at best just bearable.
If I inherited anything from my old father it was “to
enjoy what I was doing and to do it enthusiastically”. There
may not be anything particularly religious in this advice (for
it was applicable when I was at university and also later in
my work as an accountant) but it speaks to me about a quality
of life and a responsibility to ourselves.
Now, moving on to what we believe is a holy calling, that is
officership in The Salvation Army, this dictum put my ministry
into a totally different category.
This “high calling” deserved those same qualities that
the rest of my life demanded.
What were those standards that I was taught to apply?
1. Enjoy your work and do it enthusiastically and with
sensitivity. Of course sometimes enthusiastic people are the
least sensitive! “It is good and logical for me so it must be
good and logical for you!” does not contain one ounce of
reason but speaks of self-centeredness if not arrogance and
selfishness.
Having said that
enthusiasm and sensitivity are qualities to be sought
after within the frame work of our own character and being.
When I hear the shouts of enthusiastic support at a
football match I wonder about our lack of enthusiasm in the
church. (Perhaps our sensitivity keeps us quiet!)
I have often wondered if we are shy about showing our
enthusiasm for the things of God simply because of our
misunderstanding of the true meaning of enthusiasm.
From the Greek it simply means “God within”, so it has
nothing to do with shouting and hollering but for us a warmth
of joy and feeling in what we are doing, always thinking of
others who may need our understanding or encouragement.
2. I have always enjoyed study and treat my books as friends.
I have never read all the books in my library but I
know where to look when I need help or guidance – much like my
friendships.
And I trust that I am a “book” in the library of my
friends.
Just as I have friends with whom I have a difference of
opinion in some matters so I also read books with which I do
not agree.
We do not have to believe everything we read – and this
is confirmed very easily by simply glancing through any
newspaper!
Serious study provokes our own understanding and
enlightenment.
Our beliefs of today should not be the same as they
were ten years ago.
They should be deeper, more profound and maybe even
more embracing.
3. If enjoying books is high on my list so is enjoying people!
One of my problems as a young corps officer was that I
enjoyed study and preparation so much that once I started in
the morning I could sit at my desk all day!
The other problem was I enjoyed visiting so much that
if I started visiting early in the morning I could be doing
that all day as well!
My challenge was always “balance”!
I heard a colleague say once “Where there are people
there are problems!”
To be kind perhaps for him it was just one of those
days! But
if it were not for people we would not have any work – and for
any whose work is away from people without recalling this
truth daily work can easily become a drudgery.
“People are our business” seems a little crass and
earthy – but it is nonetheless a basic truth in The Salvation
Army.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is to
constantly remind ourselves of our calling – “.
. .
he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s
servant (1 Cor. 7: 22) Reminding ourselves of this truth is
never wasted time.
4. I can never be thankful enough that as Salvation Army
officers we do not have to plan our future.
In business life we study and work for this promotion
and then the next, even, maybe, with an eye on the manager’s
job or managing director.
As officers we do not plan for the next promotion but
follow the advice of Paul to Timothy to “study to show himself
approved . .
.”.
Personally I appreciate the NIV translation of this verse
which encourages – “Do your best to present yourself to God as
one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and
who correctly handles the word of truth”.
Perhaps our greatest challenge is to protect our
dedication. I
recall during our first years at International Headquarters I
was responsible for the production, for The Salvation Army, of
a series of Sunday morning broadcasts entitled “Banners and
Bonnets”. Each
Sunday morning by 9.00am more people had heard the Salvation
Army with singing, bands and a message than would be heard
throughout Britain all day.
It was a marvelous and popular ministry which I enjoyed
immensely, although I have never had to work harder in any
appointment within The Salvation Army.
Sitting in the production room at the BBC one Friday
morning, preparing the program for the next Sunday, the
producer said to me, “John, why don’t you come and do this
full time at the BBC.
We need your kind of organizing and administration”.
I knew in that moment that I had been in that
appointment long enough.
My dedication was to ministry, not arranging programs,
even although for that time that appointment, my ministry,
required me to arrange programs.
There is a big difference – and I was grateful for the
clarity of that point which came to me that morning.
Strangely enough within a month I was served with
farewell orders from that appointment without anyone knowing
of the proposition which had been made to me!
5. There is, in reflection, a great feeling of accomplishment
in having fulfilled the required time of active officership –
and needless to say an active retirement emphasizes the
activity continues.
However, the official activity has concluded and whilst
the Retirement Certificate is now hidden with files of old
papers, which perhaps will never be read, it does record the
completion of what we set out to do 41 years previously.
Career change is a modern topic these days and it is
propounded as a positive benefit in the life of many business
and career people today.
The Army has been way ahead in this procedure since
its’ beginning.
Officers have been moved from preaching to administration and
back to preaching and then to social work since 1878 (and even
in Christian Mission days).
It is perhaps not so much what we do but the fulfilling
of the calling that brings that sense of spiritual
accomplishment. The people we have touched and the programs we
have administered have been the means of attaining that
accomplishment.
The day comes – we receive that certificate and salute and say
“thank you for providing me with the means of service and of
fulfilling my calling” – and here comes the next generation,
equally dedicated and perhaps even more prepared and
qualified. God
bless them!
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