STOP. I know your lives are busy. So is mine. We all have too much to do and too little time. I get it.
However, I want to ask you to pause for a minute and remember this day because it’s the end of an era. The heavenly realm shifted this morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina when the Rev. Billy Graham, age 99, went home. Years ago he was asked if he feared death. His response was, “No! I look forward to death with great anticipation. I’m looking forward to seeing God face to face.” You can read the full story from CBS here.
The Rev. Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth, dedicated their lives to sharing the gospel of Jesus in crusades around the world. Other evangelists continue to lead global crusades, but the era of evangelistic crusades in the United States seems to have run its course.
That’s not to say there aren’t revivals springing up across the country. There are. God never quits. It’s just different. You won’t see those revivals broadcast on network television and you won’t see their stories headlined above the fold on the front page. We have more important things to watch on TV and to read about.
Really?
What can be more important than even one person stepping out of Hell and into eternity with Jesus? Billy Graham understood that. It was the consuming passion of his life to introduce others to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Can we say that’s our passion? Probably not. Most of us have other passions: our families, our jobs, our hobbies, our clothes, our gardens, our cooking, our cars, our writing — and the list goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong. Those are great things to be passionate about! God gave us personalities that propel us toward different passions — on purpose. So before you start condemning yourself, know that I’m talking about passion priorities.
As a Christ-follower Jesus must always be my first priority. I have found when I put Him first, everything else falls into place in its proper order. Having God’s order in place allows me to be totally passionate about the other things in my life — like bees. 🙂
So, let’s stop for a moment on this day when Heaven is welcoming home a child who finished well. Let’s find a secret place and talk to God. I want to take advantage of the end of this era because whenever there’s an end, there’s also a new beginning. Let’s rethink our priorities and begin to focus on what matters.
Let’s face it. We all have gotten a bit soft and a bit sloppy in our walk with Jesus. There’s no condemnation in that, but where we are today isn’t where we have to stay. We can discipline ourselves to step around those distractions and like the Olympic athletes fix our eyes on the prize. After all, don’t we all want to be children who finish well?
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