Adelaide Addison Pollard (1862–1934)

Born November 27, 1862, Adelaide Pollard became known as a hymnwriter whose life was repeatedly narrowed by frailty, yet widened by faith. While many around her measured purpose by stamina and visible achievement, Pollard learned a quieter vocation: to be faithful in limitation. Her days were marked by prayerful attention, a devotional “mysticism” grounded not in escape from the world, but in steady surrender to God within ordinary disappointments.

Pollard’s thwarted plans—especially when illness closed doors she longed to walk through—became a furnace for trust. Rather than treating weakness as a spiritual embarrassment, she offered it as worship. Her life reflects the truth that heroism can be hidden: the courage to keep yielding, keep believing, and keep obeying when the body will not cooperate and the future will not open.

Scripture gave Pollard language for this kind of sanctified yielding. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Such strength does not deny pain; it endures under God’s hand, refusing bitterness and self-pity.

“Have Thine Own Way, Lord”

Pollard’s best-known hymn rose from reflection on Jeremiah’s image of the Potter shaping clay. In seasons when her hopes were interrupted, she found comfort in God’s right to form a life by means both pleasant and painful. The hymn’s plea—“Have Thine own way”—is not passive resignation, but active trust: the believer places the will, the future, and even the wounded places of the heart into the Lord’s hands.

Jeremiah’s word captures the hymn’s center: “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand…” (Jeremiah 18:6). Pollard heard in that picture not tyranny, but care—firm fingers guided by wisdom and love.

Legacy

Pollard’s testimony continues to steady Christians facing delayed callings, chronic illness, or unexplained reversals. She reminds the church that usefulness is not cancelled by weakness, and that yielded obedience is often the most daring faith of all. Her hymn still teaches weary believers to pray: shape me, cleanse me, fill me—Lord, have Your way.