What might have been! I sadly pondered this,
As I my passing life reviewed,
While I sat all alone uncomforted
In deep discouragement renewed.
When in my earlier days, I’d heard God’s call,
And placed my life in His strong hands,
My soul was filled with ideals pure and right
To which I would forever stand.
How firm and bright the glorious prospects were
And sparkling clean the record sheet,
What opportunities to rise and work,
Life’s full potential to complete.
There was no limit to the usefulness,
To which I would with power attain,
As putting all of self and sin aside
A perfect service I’d retain.
But all has not been what it might have been,
For far below the standard set
I now in sadness pause and contemplate
My past with painful, deep, regret.
Oh! That we might the blighted past relive,
With wisdom gained through years now marred,
We would with diligence avoid the faults
Which have our work so badly scarred.
There’s nothing new about this dismal tale
For it has oft repeated been.
By men and movements since the time when sin,
At first upon the earth was seen.
Long, long ago, the mighty work of God,
To rid the world of wickedness
Should have been finalized and then
Replaced with endless righteousness.
But let us not sit still and weep away
The untouched hours which yet remain.
Let’s rise anew, a wiser breed, for we
May yet to God’s ideal attain.
We’re in the time when God at last will have
A faithful group who will have learned
The lessons chronicled for them and gained
The heaven for which the saints have yearned.
I’ll read the lessons of men’s past and mine
And bring my life in time with God,
And then what might have been will truly be
As my last steps through life are trod.
Fred Wright, April 19, 1980
