Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 3:14-4:4 NIV)
Evangelist Billy Graham died yesterday at the age of 99. His last appearance on the national stage was shortly after 9/11 when he spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. at a memorial service for the victims of that dreadful terrorist attack. Among the students I work with, and even the many who have graduated in recent years, they have no memory of Dr. Graham. If they recognized his name, they knew little about him other than he was famous and very old. But like so many elderly people we know, Billy Graham had an extraordinary life, and the Lord used him to impact literally millions of people over his lifetime.
He became a Christian in his teens and felt the call of the Lord on his life to be an evangelist by the time he was 20. Imagine that. And what can be said about him as we remember his life is that he was faithful to the calling he received and lived a life worthy of it. Was he perfect? Did he do everything right along the way? Of course not, and he freely admitted that. But what he did do was live out faithfully the call the Lord had given him and to trust Him. Growing up on a farm just outside Charlotte, NC, Graham could have never comprehended what his life would become. He just followed Jesus and proclaimed what he deeply believed and felt—that the Lord’s love for us is much greater and grander than we can fathom.
My life intersected with Dr. Graham’s life on a wintery night when I was 20 years old, at a missions conference attended by 18,000 college students. As he spoke about God’s call on our lives to surrender to Him and follow Him wherever He leads us, I listened with much unease. I had given my life to Jesus just a little over a year before that and I was terrified that God would send me overseas somewhere to live as a missionary. I was more than content staying in the good ol’ US of A. In fact, I had an iron-fisted grip on that idea. Until Graham challenged us to surrender our lives to the Lord’s will, whatever that might be, to trust Him not just with a portion of our lives, but all of it. That night, I surrendered my will with much fear and trembling for what might be looming ahead for me.
Some 40+ years later, as I reflect on both Mr. Graham’s life and my own, I see the hand of God; I see His love; and I see His incredible power to use people in ways that are truly unimaginable. Life trusting the Lord always turns out much different and better than if we shrink back in distrust and choose to live life on our terms.
The sad thing is we will never know what we have missed by going our own way until our life is over. This is why I think Paul urges (pleads) that we live a life worthy of the calling we have received so we can know just how great the Lord is in loving us and transforming us. That terrified young man of the mid-70’s became one who has eagerly traveled to much of the world to help college students grasp the Lord’s love for all who live on this planet and how they can play a role in His mission to tell them, just as Billy Graham went from a farm boy to a global evangelist.
Today, what do you sense God’s calling is on your life? Are you shrinking back from it out of fear? Are you instead planning your life the way you want it to be? Then just as Dr. Graham challenged me and thousands of others decades ago, let me challenge you, plead with you, to trust the Lord and embrace His call to follow Him no matter where He leads. It may be terrifying, but you cannot even imagine the great things He has in store if you surrender all of your life to Him. This is the legacy of Billy Graham’s life. I hope it is the legacy I leave. And I hope it will be your legacy as well.
© Jim Musser 2018
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