Some people reach their golden years of life only to be overwhelmed by a looming sense of regret about the way things panned out. They say to themselves, "What if I had only done this?" Or perhaps they think, "What if I hadn't wrongly done that?" It's sad, but many a fine and productive life has been discounted in later years by thoughts of what could have been.
Reverend W. Joe Wall Jr. readily admits that he made a few mistakes along the way, but he doesn't dwell on such things. Even now at age ninety-one, he still regularly asks himself over and over, "Am I where God wants me, doing what He wants me to do?"
Born in Morristown, in Northeast Tennessee during the depths of the Great Depression, Reverend Wall provides the following observation on his early life: "I grew up in a very poor neighborhood where the whites and blacks lived very close to each together. We lived together with respect for one another and lived with peace in our hearts."
It is with that sense of righteousness that Reverend Wall has spent living the last nine decades.
In What If, Reverend Wall offers up the narrative of his own life experience. It's a story that take us from his childhood years as a might-have-been juvenile delinquent, through his younger years as student on a college football scholarship, and all the way through his career as professional educator. As if all this doesn't make life full enough, Reverend Wall was also actively engaged in ministry all along the way.
The text describes Reverend Wall-the things he did, the people he met, and the things he learned. But it will be clear to the reader that the real story is a story of testament. It is Reverend Wall's testament to how the only true way to find contentment is through the love of Jesus Christ under the direction and guidance of God Almighty. Taking any other path is only a fool's errand.