“The greatness of the man’s power is the measure of his surrender.”

― William Booth

Being that William, an English Methodist preacher, along with his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army, I would contend that “power” in this context  aligns in part with Merriam & Webster: “the ability to act or produce an effect; specifically : an ability that seems extraordinary or superhuman.” Think about what they together created and shared with the world.  

Yet I suspect that Mr. Booth and his wife were touched more by the power of the Holy Spirit, choosing to pursue  a godly life, embracing and enduring hardship, and performing selfless acts of service, wonder and love.  

That is the power that can only be discovered in surrender.  Full out. Though at first it may feel like all you can do is dip your toe in it, there is nothing but merit to be realized once you just jump in.  

If you think about it, more often than not, in a sense, you have already sunk.  There is not much of an existence to be had living on the bottom.  Being fully surrendered brings you up, back to the top, ready to be in the light and live as you were meant to live. 

Salvation as it were.  

Part of a loving army of men and women pursuing a godly life, embracing and enduring hardship and performing selfless acts of service, wonder and love. 

As an enlistment with the Booth’s cause.  

And with Him.

“Other people are going to find healing in your wounds. Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.”
― Rick Warren

If you think of it, a healing process of this level has a great many stages, levels and appearances. In certain respects, we are all wounded in some way, shape or form. Moments with others that happen to intersect at various points along the path towards healing. The start. The middle. Close to the finish.

How Mr. Warren depicts this level of interaction lifts our wounds from being an acknowledged infirmity to an empowering affirmity. For both.

Affirming in the sense that you are able to genuinely convey your anguish to share an arduous, ongoing recuperative journey with another. Reinforcing their efforts in a continuous pursuit of recovery while confirming the impetus of your own.

The fact that you can help them and yourself in concert carries with it a sense of the divine. A true fellowship centered on openness, trust, humility and love. Love for them. And ultimately, for yourself.

It was St. Thomas of Assissi that once said, ““The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.” Though you may deliver one to help them mend, your sharing it provides the sustenance needed for your ongoing healing as well.

We all share one thing in common; the wounds of life.

So let us too share what enables us to live.

The hope of healing.

“It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self. As a matter of experience, we find that true happiness comes in seeking other things, in the manifold activities of life, in the healthful outgoing of all human powers.”

– Hugh Black

Some thought provoking insights from a Scottish-American theologian, author dating back to the turn of the century.

Mr. Black implies that by seeking pleasure or happiness, a choice and action initiated from within, one will inevitably fail to obtain it. However, by .”..aiming at something outside of self”, he seems to posit that purpose acts to aggregate the collective opportunities to experience true happiness.

It isn’t so much some “thing” that appears, carrying with it a modicum of happiness. But rather that the cumulative effects of all of your outgoing human powers collaborate to gather it in, in all forms, enveloping you within a greater sense of life.

Being that it is not an entity to be taken in unto itself, but rather allowing its presence surround you, permeating all you are.

“In the manifold activities of life.”