Autobiography: Billy Graham

One of the things I decided I want to do this year is be purposeful about reading biographies.  That is not to say that I am going to only read biographies.  I just figured that the stories of real people's lives ought to be as interesting, if not more interesting, as the stories of fictional people's lives.  I want to learn and grow and look outside myself...and so it seemed like biographies might be a good action step in that direction.

Because I am not a verbal processor, I also thought a good way to try to process what I've gained from the biographies and retain that information is to blog about it.  I do not plan to write a book review for every book I write--several of you already think I blog too much as it is, and to add another 50 posts a year might scare you away indefinitely from my blog.  If you just don't care to hear my thoughts on the biographies, feel free to skip right over those posts.  I'll always put something in the title to let you know that a biography review is coming up.

That said:  I just finished Just As I Am, the autobiography of Billy Graham.

This was one fat book, and it took me nearly a month of constant reading to get through it.  The surprising thing was: it was not a deep or heavy read by any means.  It wasn't what I expected, at all, but that doesn't mean I regret reading it.  I expected deep, spiritual thoughts that I could chew on and glean from...and found it to have almost none, which surprised me.  The entire book was a regurgitation of all the Crusades he'd spoken at, all the places he went, all the people he met and worked with, all the work that God led him to do.

The thing is, his driving passion to be obedient to the Lord's call on his life still came across.

Here are a few things I surmised of Billy:

1. He was a man of the Word.  He spent hours studying it every day, and he refused to budge on his faith in the Word.  He preached the Word.  
2. He was so focused, so driven.  It seems that he rarely did anything but preach the gospel...and play a little golf on the side.  :)  He stayed focused on the call to preach the gospel, despite how it often took hard tolls on his health and brought long periods of separation from his family.  In retrospect, he said, "Only Ruth and the children can tell what those extended times of separation meant to them.  For myself, as I look back, I now know that I came away through those years much the poorer psychologically and emotionally.  I missed so much by not being home to see the children grow and develop.  The children must carry scars of those separations too." (pg. 702)  He put his hand to the plow, and never looked back.  And I truly wonder, when he finally does stand before the Lord, would he still say he has those regrets?  When he sees the impact he had on the Kingdom, will he really see himself as "poorer"?  I don't think he will.  
3. He was a man of prayer.  He bathed all decisions in prayer.  He prayed with people.  Even as much as that came across to me over all the pages of the book, at the end, he said, "[Looking back,] I would...spend more time in spiritual nurture, seeking to grow closer to God so I could become more like Christ.  I would spend more time in prayer, not just for myself but for others.  I would spend more time studying the Bible and meditating on its truth, not only for sermon preparation but to apply its message to my life...And I would give more attention to fellowship with other Christians, who could teach me and encourage me (and even rebuke me when necessary)."  (pg. 724)
4. He deeply loved and admired Ruth, his wife.  He spoke often of what an encouragement she was to him.  
5. He wisely (tried to) separated himself from political sides and arguments.  He constantly put himself forward as a spiritual advisor, even to the presidents, but never as a political advisor or commentator.  

The first half of the book was so interesting to me, as he described his early life, coming to Christ, schooling, marrying Ruth, being an itinerant preacher for Youth for Christ, and then the early Crusades, particularly three: Los Angeles (1947), London (1954), and New York (1957).  I honestly cannot even imagine a preacher bringing in tens of thousands, or even over one hundred thousand...for nights, weeks, and months on end.  I can't fathom it.  It seems like a different era.  Is it though?  He thinks so.  He says, "Ruth reminds me that the situation is different today.  There are many more evangelists and far more Christian programs on television and radio, so perhaps the need for constant travel is less necessary.  When I started years ago, I was responding to an urgent need in the best way I knew how.  And God has been faithful." (pg. 703)  So perhaps, even today, the younger generation is "responding to [the] urgent need in the best [they] know how."  Maybe we'll never the likes of a Billy Graham again.  

I do hope, though, that we see more men and women of his character.  He may not have shared much spiritual depth via words in this particular book, but a quick glance of the resumé of his life shows that it bore much fruit.  Fruit that produced more fruit 100 times over.  Fruit like that doesn't come from a tree with no root, and so one of the major things I've gleaned from Billy is... 

...is my life producing fruit that will last?  

(Billy Graham preaching at the "Manhattan Marathon" Crusade in 1957)

P.S.  You might wonder, out of the gazillion biographies out there, why I chose Billy Graham?  Quite simply: it was available to me.  Someone left it behind when they moved from Marseille, and I grabbed it.  It's not the first biography I read this year, just the first one I chose to write about.  I honestly didn't know anything about him except that he was a preacher.  Now I know a little more...