Billy Graham’s body is being laid to rest here in Charlotte, North Carolina today.
Few ministers have impressed me like Billy Graham. Though he was a man who was not perfect, he reflected a key value which I wish many other ministers did: Humility!
Though he was passionate about challenging people young and old to “surrender to Christ”, there was always humility about him. Having great power to influence millions, he always seem to keep his own importance in check. Most minister I have come to know, either personally or in conferences, seem to lose the battle over their own importance. Often, once they become successful with large churches and writing books, they seem to get caught up in the notion that they are great rather than always remembering the Christ needed to die on the cross to justly forgive their personal sin just like everyone else. Rich or poor, famous or not.
Franklin his son, who oversaw his funeral arrangements, was asked by President Trump if he would like to do the funeral in the Cathedral in Washington D. C., which would have been a great honor. Franklin told President Trump thank you, but that his father started his ministry in a tent and he would want his body laid to rest using a tent. I like what Franklin said about his dad being more alive today than he ever was because now he is not shackled by his human frailty. We so often forget that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. (2 Cor 5:8)
I saw an interview that Diane Sawyer did an in 1992 when Billy Graham was 75. In the interview, Billy spoke plainly that he is in a body that has the same temptations we all have in thought and deed. He talked about when he dies he didn’t want great things said about him except one thing by one person. He wanted to hear, “Well Done Good And Faithful Servant”, at which Billy said he wasn’t sure he would her from God. This kind of attitude kept him safe from the over exaggeration of who he was to himself and the world. God grant us all a clear perspective of our value without getting proud over it.
It is often a delicate thing to handle the thought of just how much God loves us, and yet to keep in perspective our own humanity that can turn on a dime to do both good or evil.
The greatness of Billy Graham is really about the greatness of God. A God who would take a simple dairy farmer from North Carolina and use him to change the world.
Billy Graham’s sermons never impressed me. They were not complicated or heavy, rather they were the simple truths that we are sinners who need a savior to truly become good. That God is the only one who can truly fix us and make us the kind of people he dreams we could be. That God not only can fix us, but wants to. Wow!
May God raise up many great men and women of God who won’t get in the way of God’s greatness, because our generation is so lost without a savior.
Pastor Dale
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