Billy Graham Touched My Life

I awoke this morning o the news that Dr. Billy Graham had died. It did not surprise me, after all he was 99 years of age.  My first thought was a giant of the faith has fallen and then I said to myself, “No, a giant has risen!.” The last of the most effective evangelistic team has now been reunited in the presence of the Lord that they proclaimed.

No doubt people who knew him better will eulogize him from a variety of platforms and venues. Dr. William “Billy” Graham was counselor to Presidents beginning with Harry Truman through Barak Obama. Not only to President and Prime Ministers but also to kings and paupers.

He was quietly working in the civil rights music here in America and around the world. He insisted that his meeting be open to people of all races. He and Dr. Martin Luther King quietly formed and alliance in which Dr. Graham would use his crusades to help bring black and white America together around the cross and Dr. King would lead the movement in the streets. His first integrated crusade was in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1953. After the ropes cordoning off the black section of the auditorium were removed, Graham told the ushers who threatened to put them back up, "Either these ropes stay down or you can go on and have the revival without me."  He did the same in South Africa.

But God called Dr. Graham to be a “Preacher of the Gospel” and he single-mindedness followed that calling. I hear people talking about him preaching with authority but he would say I have no authority other than the authority of God’s word. I doubt you can number the times he would say, “The Bible says.”  That phrase was his equivalent to the Old Testament prophet’s “Thus saith the Lord.” Today, no one has preached face-to-face with more people. It numbers in the hundreds of millions all around the globe.

I remember on of my Christian Ethics professor, Dr. Milton Ferguson,  and later President of Midwestern Seminary speak of his experience in Germany about riding with some other theological graduate student s to attend a crusade Dr. Graham was holding in Germany. They were skeptical of the longevity of the decisions made at the crusades. One of the men stated he had never known on that ever lasted, Dr. Melton, sitting in the back seat piped in with, Well, “I am one of those converts.” Millions of others could say the same thing.

"I tell that story because Dr. Graham never wavered from his message that “God loves you” and thatHe sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for you.”  There is a lesson in that for those of us who God has “called to preach.”  If God has called you to preach then the most important thing you can do is preach. You may do many things effectively but if you have been called by God to preach the unsearchable riches in Christ Jesus then it is that preaching that God will anoint you to do. By all means be consistent, clear, and unwavering in that message.

All of this you can read in an of the many biographies that have been written but I want to tell you about my experience with Billy Graham. I heard Dr. Graham for the first time as a child at a crusade in Houston, Texas in the 1950's but I met him for the first time in 1963 as an 17 year old "preacher boy" looking for a College to attend. It was on the campus of what was then called Houston Baptist College (follow this link to here that message). It was a brief encounter as he was leaving the campus after have brought an inspiring and encouraging message to the fledgling school.  

As his entourage passed myself and a friend wished only to get an up close look at him. To our delight he stopped and spoke to both of us one at a time. I don’t know what prompted him to stop but I am grateful that he did. Perhaps he sensed we were both also, like he, “called to preach.” What I do recall is in those few moments I felt as though I was the center of his world as no doubt did my friend. He spoke to us individually and look straight down into our eyes as we looked up to his height. He asked about my plans and I told him God had called me to preach. He replied, "God bless you and remember . . . always preach the Bible."

I came away from that encounter with the feeling that is what being a preacher involved at its best. You always give your undivided attention to the person to whom you were speaking and you need to look directly at the people to whom you preach. They need to feel that you are speaking directly to them because God may very well be doing so. That’s what he did in his preaching and that was my experience that day.

The second time I met him was a couple of years later when he made an unofficial visit to the campus. This time I was a second year student and on campus. It was not a big public affair but like Bobby Jones, the great golfer, returning to the Old Course at St. Andrews the word quickly spread that he was on campus. I don’t know what the reason was for his being there but again as he walked from Sharp’s gym to the quadrangle where the stairs on the south side are located we came face to face.
  
As we met he paused for a moment as though he was searching his memory for something. I think because of time and place he had what I often refer to as a Deja vu all over again experiences. It's that feeling of, "I've lived this moment before." That's the only reason I can find that he then he looked right a me and said, “I believe we have met somewhere before.” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I said, “Yes sir, briefly when you were here before you stopped and spoke with me and my friend.”  He said, “I thought so. . . , how are your studies going?” “Fine,” I replied. He then said a few encouraging words and went on his way. Again as before I was impressed that he once again give me his undivided attention and how focused he was on me as he spoke.

The last time our paths crossed were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary were he had been invited to speak. It was standing room only and I was standing along the “western” wall of Truitt Auditorium as the assembly began. I remember I was second in the line and when Dr, Graham got up to speak the guy ahead of me in the line just walked upon the stage and sat in Dr. Graham’s now empty chair. When Graham finished the guy got up and resumed his place next to me.

When the meeting ended naturally they asked that we all stay in place until the platform dignitaries left. That brought them right past where this guy and myself was standing. Dr. Graham stopped had a few words with the guy who shared his chair and said something to Dr. Robert Naylor about not saying anything more about it. He then reached our shook my hand and simple said as he left the building, “It is good to see you again.”  The key word here is "again."  Again, the personal trait that I found most impressive in Dr. Graham was the way he looked you in the eye and made you feel comfortable and this day he made me feel remembered.

As life went on I was privileged to attend a couple of his Schools of Evangelism (Lake Louis and Denver) and work in a couple of his crusades (Houston and Denver) where I met leaders of his team who demonstrated that Billy Graham was the real deal. As I worked with them and others I came away know that Billy Graham was the real deal.

The world has lost a giant with the loss of Dr. Graham. His example is a message to those of us who are called of God to preach the gospel.  We are not called to create a message but to deliver an ancient truth. If when we finished people do not see Jesus then we have failed.  Or niche in the  kingdom is to declare to people that God loves them, Jesus died for them,  and Jesus is coming again to receive his own.

Friends we do not need to spend too much time explaining the gospel but we are to clearly proclaim the Gospel.  His reputation was untouched by sex or financial scandals. He never built a mega church, launched a political lobby or ran for office. Instead, he consistently preached Christianity's core message — Christ died for your sins — downplaying denominational details and proclaiming the joys found in faith.

However, Billy Graham had a natural charisma the seemed to draw people to him.  He once said, "I despise all this attention on me . . . I'm not trying to bring people to myself, but I know that God has sent me out as a warrior." Is that not the desire of every preacher. There was a time in my own ministry when  I had a sign on the pulpit that stated simply, "Sir, We would see Jesus." It was there to remind me and everyone else who spoke from that pulpit that our job was to call attention to Jesus not ourselves. I got it from Spurgeon who had it carved into the wood just above the edge of his Bible.

So this week we bid farewell to the world’s greatest evangelist. He has entered into his reward and has no doubt heard the words he longed to hear . . . "Well done thou good and faithful servant."  Those are the exact same words this preacher of the Gospel wants to hear. Indeed, it is not the amount of work but the faithfulness to the calling that God rewards his children. With that truth in mind I encourage you to be faithful unto death.

I have an absolutely unshakable confidence that Billy Graham and I will cross paths one more time . . . .when I get there myself . . . . . as I meet the Lord I like to imagine catching a glimpse of Brother Billy off to the side and maybe just maybe hear him whisper, "Look Cliff, there is that guy again. He seems to be standing around everywhere I go.”

Lord I mourn the loss but I thank you that Billy Graham lived in my generation and I pray he sends us more men like Billy Graham. I look forward to a longer conversation . . . . . and with his passing I say, “Even so come Lord Jesus.”

 Share your own experience with or thoughts about Dr. Graham in the comments box below

Well, It Has Happened Again

I remember standing under the covered drive at Southwest Memorial Hospital waiting for the rain to let up so I could walk to my car. As I stood there I was speaking with fellow chaplain Bill Nash about the crazy drivers up on highway 59 and how I was a little apprehensive about getting out there with them. Bill looked at me and said, “yea, that scary alright. But, you know what scares me more?” Me, “What?” He then said, “What scares me is having spent all day working in the Psychiatric Ward (he and I both worked there) with the mentally ill I get off work, come down here and see those same people running loose.” I replied, “I agree and they’re driving those cars on that highway I have to get on in a few minutes.” All he said then was, “Yep” as we stepped out from under the portico to head to separate parking areas.

Folks we need to get serious about the mental health of our people and I offer the following as something to consider.

Well, it has happened again.  A eighteen year old former student entered his school armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon shot and killed 17 people and wounded a number of others. He ultimately surrendered to the police without any resistance at all. It was almost as if he were saying, “Well, you finally noticed me.”

Immediately the champion’s of the Second Amendment begin saying, “Guns do not kill people; people kill people.” And they are absolutely correct. People died not because an AR-15 decided to run on down to the local school and start going off.  Truth is people died that day because a person in his twisted mind decided for reasons we may never be able to understand got up one day and decided to kill them.

On the other hand, the Gun Control faction begins to cry out that we need to control more strictly the availability of guns. If it hadn’t been so easy to get his hands on a AR-15 not so many people would have died that day. That is probably true as well.

It is this very argument that is keeping us from discovering the causes of these kinds of events and until we know the causes we cannot apply any cure let alone the specific cure. Now I do not expect anyone to listen to what I am about to say because it reeks of common sense and you and I do not want to accept our culpability for being where we are as a society.

I am old enough to have a first hand experiential view of the process that brought us to where we are on this issue and for that matter a lot of other issues. Back when I was 19 years old and even younger you rarely heard of a mass slaying and when you did it was rarely committed by persons under the age of 20.  Oh, to be sure we have had them. I have not forgotten about Dean Corll & Elmer Wayne Henley or Jeffrey Dahmer. But these were the exception not the rule and differed from these shooting sprees in significant and profound ways.

So how did we get here? I begin by saying that I lay virtually all of this “modern trend” of mass

killings on the general deterioration of our society. When I was a child we held up a largely idealized standard of what the family unit was to be. We had Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, Father knows Best, My Three Sons and even Dennis the Menace.

I know, I know . . . . they weren’t the reality. But that is the whole point they weren’t the reality they were the ideal. They were the goal we sought for our own families.  We weren’t deluded . . . . we knew our families were flawed. But they provided a modicum of social structure that made it possible for us to adjust to society in general.

At the same time the erosion of the American family is part of the problem. It is not the totality of the problem but it is a part. You see it was in the family unit, even when it was functioning poorly, where we learned much of our early socialization. We learned about authority and it’s role in our lives; we learned about responsibility as we discovered our place within the family; we learned about give and take, caring and sharing, helping and supporting each other; self-discipline had a chance to develop and as we matured decision making skills were added within that microcosm of society . . . . the family unit.

All of those individual microcosm interacting with each other formed a society where everyone knew their roll and how to basically coexist in a peaceful way. That interacting of families formed communities and those communities formed a nation so that wherever you found yourself you were able to “fit in.” Some places might have been strange to us but in most cases we knew how to adapt. We also know that within our society, just as in some families there were elements that just refused to integrate and in some case reintegrate.

Then we entered the “New Age.”  The age of “latch Key” children and absentee parents. This marked the takeover of family responsibility by the schools and government. As poorly as families may have functioned they did a far better job of socialization than do the schools and government.

This degeneration continued until in our day we have large segments of society who don’t even know what gender they are.  What I am saying is that the first stage of our trip to a degraded society was the deviation from the nuclear family and its traditional roll of families in our society.  There is something to be said about families being at home together and eating around a common table.  Society is only as good and strong as its individual families because the family provides a learning sphere where basic morality, responsibility, self-discipline etc. can be  modeled and learned.

In my mind the second issue is the over use of drugs to control behavior. Because the home has been neutered by our society our children have been placed under intense pressure. A few children grow being kept by a loving grandparent or other family member but most are growing up in what I call “baby camps” (day care).

My point is our children are institutional babies. They spend their whole life under the influence of people who may be kind and caring but cannot provide the nurturing environment need to develop balanced children. Instead, it develops regimented lives that are designed to fit the demands of the particular institution in which they are raised. Then come along that 1% who don’t fit the regimen, they are a little different, they are socially awkward.

These children spend a lot of time being disciplined for their behavior and acting out. Soon they are put on the alphabet soup syndrome. They get diagnosed and prescribed some sort of behavior modifying drug such as Ritalin. Then a teacher and the school counselor recommends they see a doctor as they seem to be showing signs of some kind of anti-social deviation or have become uncontrollably disruptive.

I am convinced that the excessive use of psychotropic drugs to control children's behavior whose full impact we do not understand may be playing a roll in the way things go around inside of the child who is taking them. Are their children who need them . . . .absolutely!

But among children 0-17 years we have 8,389,034 kids on psychiatric drugs and 1,080,168 are five years and under. We have 4,404,360 kids on ADHD Drugs and 188,899 of these are five years old and under.  We have 165,279 kids on antidepressants and 110,516 are five and under. We 830,836 kids on antipsychotics and 27,343 are five and younger, and 2,132,625 kids on anti-anxiety of which 727,304 are under five. That’s a lot of kids taking some sort of mind altering medication.  I don’t remember a handful of kids when I was growing up who ever took anything stronger than aspirin and an occasional antibiotic.

My point here is that we know that Ritalin alone has the following “negative effects:”  nervousness, agitation, anxiety, sleep problems (insomnia), stomach pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, palpitations, headache, vision problems, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, sweating, skin rash, psychosis, and numbness, tingling, or cold feeling in your hands or feet. All th other drugs given to our children have their own set of negative effects as well. Truth is, we have no real understanding of what these drugs do in a child’s developing brain.

Another ingredient in our social pie that is at crises stage is a lack of real social interaction and “real” personal  friends.  They don’t get it at home, they get little at school, and they get none through social media. I recently heard a group of about 40 or so 15-17 year olds be asked to raise their hand if they had anyone in their life that they would call their “best friend.” Not a single hand went up. Social media is taking the place of socialization. No best friends, no group with which to hang, . . . . just a phone, wifi, and Facebook.  In real life when a friend dies we weep on Facebook we just “unfriend them.”  Social media is fun but unless you have some level of self-discipline and at least a few of people whose real presence you prefer over their electronic identity you will find yourself alone and maybe very lonely.

Finally, we live in an age when rage is everywhere. Again social media has become the place where we vent our frustrations and anger with others and their views. Violence and vitriolic language shows up on everyone’s time lines. Add to this the impact of computer games of the worst kind where the dead don't stay dead; and the failure to develop skills in our enforcement authorities to recognize mental health "red flags" and our mental health industries incompetence with it comes to treatment.

Now take this mixture and throw in the lunacy of not insisting on fire arm specific training; age/maturity appropriate weapons. A15 year old shouldn't be able to buy any kind of fire arm and if one is bought for them either they are their dad must take the safety course for that weapon. Some how we need to remind the NRA that individual minutemen never owned any cannons. Those Minutemen sure would have made short work of the British if they'd only had a few AR-15's.

Something must be done about availability and I believe if we really try we can solve the conflict between the second amendment and the proliferation of military styled weapons. Personally though, I think that cat is already out of the bag. With over 300 million registered firearms I'm sure a big old chunk of that number is made up of AR-15's.

My friend Bill, remember Bill, I mentioned him in the beginning of this missive, well, Bill was good
at spotting what officials call "red flags" and insisted it could be learned and was teachable. He and I often discussed this and could never agree or even come up with method that didn't open the door to the loss of everyone's valued civil liberties or unnecessarily inhibiting suspected people who prove to be fine or responded well to therapy from future discrimination because we have required them to go through some sort of psychological evaluation.

Will we solve the problem this time? Not likely. It is too far embedded in the fabric of our culture and our national conversation is dominated by voices on the extremes. I am afraid we have already gone too far down this road. The toothpaste is out of the tube and I fear there is no putting it back without great patience, effort, pain and some loss. Emotions blind us to reason and sacred cows prevent us from separating our fiction from the facts. In short, we really deep down don't want to make the significant social and personal moral changes required bring peace to a nation divided six ways to Sunday.

Personally, I suspect short of a Divine intervention things will only progressively get worse. I think a really good dose of the Old Time Christian Gospel which is able to create a new kind of person out of the person we are and do it without drugs of any kind. I just don't think our present society is apt to be up for that given its present attitude toward Christianity.  As Lincoln proclaimed a new birth of freedom I wish I could declare a new birth of morality and ethics. But alas I must yield to Scripture and acknowledge that only God can make that new society and thereby bring peace. There will be no Utopia until "we all get to heaven" but until then perhaps we can be a little kinder, a lot more watchful and start extending a hand to our brother who is weaker.

αὑτ  εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον ποι ν εἰρήνην

Now That I Have Retired

I read a post by Sue Russell Dismukes on Facebook about how time has passed so quickly since retirement and how she could make a short list of the things she misses from her job and a long one for what she doesn't miss. It got me to thinking along those same lines

The list of things I miss would be very short and the things I don't miss might be a bit longer.

However, the ones I miss . . . .I really do miss! Now that shouldn't be news to anyone because I suspect it is true for most of us who are officially “retired.” What might be more surprising to you, as it was to me, is what was actually on my short list when I finally sat down and wrote it.

When I actually sat down to make that list I thought, “It’s a short list how long can it take and how hard could it be?” Well, it took a lot longer and was a lot harder that my initial impression. It really wasn’t easy.

First, I had to take an inventory of just what I did during my pre-retirement years. I must confess that when I got finished doing that I was absolutely mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. The occasion for making my list was in preparation for a biography I am in the early stages of writing.

It was mentally exhausting because it required me to reach into the file cabinet of my mind and recall and organize the memories that I find there. Emotionally exhausting because I had to relive all the painful events in my life as well as the lives of those to whom I ministered. Physically exhausting because of the amount of time and energy put into the effort. I remember a speech teacher in College and later one of my professors of preaching saying that preaching one sermon on Sunday morning was as emotionally, mentally and physically draining as eight hours of hard physical work. Now, 52 years after I first heard that all I can say is, “I believe it!”

At any rate, what I list here will not be complete . . . . that would require the book I plan to write. This list will be in any order of priority I give to each activity. When it came what I missed the most and what I missed the least . . . well, that was easy. It is all the things in-between those two extremes that defied being ranked in order of significance. Besides, I don’t need them all for the book.

I suppose I should give you a little background. I often just assume that people know what I did with my life. Having spent most of it in the public eye and on the stage. Mmy mind sometimes forgets about the passage of time. So many of the people who would know what I did with my life have now entered into their eternal reward . . . . for you more contemporary people that is a metaphor for, “They’re dead.”

When I was a senior at Pasadena High School in Pasadena, Texas I had an experience with God during a Sunday night worship service that brought purpose and meaning to my life. My intention was to teach history at some University but that night God spoke to me so clearly that it almost seemed to be an audible voice. That voice was wrapped in the statement of Jesus, “And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me.” In my mind that was God telling me that my life was to be invested in lifting Jesus up and that is what I have tried to do for the last 52 years.

On that night a struggle in my life came to an end when I said to God and that congregation that God had called me to preach. I made it clear that he did not call me to pastor, he did not call me to some oblique ministry . . . . no! He called me to preach and that is what I have been all my life. I am a preacher first, second and last. To be sure I have performed the tasks of a pastor, I have been involved in missions, visited the sick, cared for the dying, fed the hungry and all the rest. But that was not what I was called to do . . . .no indeed, it was what I was obligated to do as a Christian.  I was called to preach the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus to both saints and sinners.

Why do I tell you this you wonder? I tell it because it relates directly to the thing a miss more than anything else in life. The number one thing I miss is standing at the sacred desk week after week proclaiming the truth of the Word of God to God’s people. Now people who know me well aren’t surprised by that but those who know me casually might be.

Let me explain. I am not by nature a person who as a rule being the center of attention. I can sit quietly on the sideline and be happy. I really did not like being in front of a crowd and have to
say something. I have never entered the pulpit that inside my nerves were all over the place. But somehow by the grace of God when I got there opened that Bible and began to read that nervous person left and someone I never really got to know came forth and preached with authority and confidence as the Holy Spirit of God did His work.  In that moment the pulpit became the most comfortable and only place I wanted to be.

So, there you have it. My number one missed thing was the regular preaching. Oh, I enjoyed teaching. . . . . . but I relished preaching. I just had this conviction that I believe came from God that night at the Boulevard Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas when He called me to be His preacher.

As I understood that calling it was to preach. Small group large congregation didn’t matter to me. I have preached to the 3 or 4 gathered in His name and to the 100's gathered in His house. When God called me to preach it was almost like He was saying,

 “Ok, here is the deal. I have chosen you not because I needed you or you are worthy of anything. I have chosen you simply because it is what I wanted to do and as God I have that right.” He continued, “And here is what I expect from you. Prepare your self intellectually; prepare yourself spiritually; and prepare yourself collegially (in short associates with others I have called to preach).  Why, because on a day that I will choose I will have you stand for me and when you do I want you to do so with intellectual, spiritual and communal integrity.  And remember, I am not holding you responsible for the results I am holding you responsible for your obedience to My call. Once you have finished the preaching step aside and let My Spirit do His work. It is He who is responsible for the results.”

It like God was saying, “You take my words that my Spirit impresses on your heart and faithfully and truthfully speak them to the people and then my Spirit will take them and speak to the appropriate people in the congregation.” So when I say the number one thing I miss is the week by week public proclamation of the Gospel this is what I am speaking about.

The number two thing that I miss is the collegiality with others who God has called to preach the Gospel. I am not at all sure I appreciated it at the time but being a preacher of the Gospel has brought some of the greatest leaders of Christianity in our time into my life. Now mark it well, I do not see a pecking order of importance among preachers. As preachers share the same calling from God. We all serve the same God, preach the same Gospel, have the same calling from God’s perspective we are all the same and that is how it should be among us for the most part in my experience that’s the way it was. From Europe to Australia God has brought godly men into my life to enrich my life. (I’ll not detail it here . . . . buy the book).

There is only one feeling that exceeds that of preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit and that is the fellowship one shares with others who do the same.  During 52 years of being a preacher God brings a lot of people into your life. Some for long periods; some just momentarily; and in a wide variety of personalities but all with purpose and meaning. One of the benefits of this fellowship was reflected in my life just a week or so ago when I was down because of my back. Notes began to arrive from people we had served with over the years. I got messages of sympathy and prayers for recovery from fellow “Preachers” from around the world.  Maybe that account for me feeling no pain when I went to the spine doctor.  At any rate, while that fellowship continues it is getting smaller, though no less significant, as time and people pass. I never wanted to achieve greatness in this life but I have always being with those whom God has called and learning what God was doing through them.

Number three on the list is a bit harder and maybe harder to explain. It is the relationships that you develop as you minister to members of the church and as you work with them in ministry. By “members” I mean those people on whose life my ministry had a major impact in some way. There is something about walking with people through the valleys of their lives representing in a physical way God’s presence that binds lives together. This one surprised me. You see, of all the things I enjoyed the least it was visiting people in the hospital. I had to be trained to do that. That training took place at Memorial Hospital in Southwest Houston (Old Houston Baptist Hospital). Dr. Tom Cole and Tim Van Divendyke took me under their wing and helped me “learn” how to make a meaningful hospital visit and how to grow from it even if I didn’t like doing it . . . .and I never did get to where I liked it. I got pretty good at it but never liked doing it.

So there you have it. That’s my short list. If I go any further I will quickly move from least enjoyed to those I hated to do.

So that brings me to a suggestion for the rest of you retired folks . . . . Identify what you liked most about your job or profession and then find a new way to do it. After 52 years there is little chance that a man of my age will ever stand week after week in a pulpit but, and that is a big. But, he can still proclaim the unsearchable riches of God in Christ Jesus through social media and writing and perhaps the use of Youtube. My point is find a way to keep what beings you joy from your working years and use it to provide joy in your retirement years. That may take some reflection and honest evaluation coupled with some creative thinking. Not to worry these activities are good for you. You cannot help aging but you can stay young of mind and heart and find significance and meaning in your retirement years.