Newsweek article on Billy Graham -- lengthy but good read

[nosillies]

Pilgrim’s Progress
In the twilight, Billy Graham shares what he's learned in reflecting on politics and Scripture, old age and death, mysteries and moderation.

To everything there is a season, says the author of Ecclesiastes, and for Billy Graham this is the season of coping with the toll of time. Getting around is harder; so is recalling familiar Scriptures. Yet rather than simply withdrawing into the shadows to enjoy a few richly deserved quiet years with his wife and family, Graham believes he may have been called to a last mission: to soldier on by faith, praying and pondering and sharing what he has come to see and feel and think in the twilight of his life. In the same way he refused to give up searching his memory for the verses to the psalm, he seems congenitally incapable of surrendering completely to the weakness of the body. "All my life I've been taught how to die, but no one ever taught me how to grow old," Graham remarked one day to his daughter Anne Graham Lotz. "And I told him, 'Well, Daddy, you are now teaching all of us'." The lesson of age, Anne says, is this: "When you get older, secondary things, like politics, begin to fall away, and the primary thing becomes primary again—and for Daddy, the primary thing is, as Jesus said, to try to love God totally, and to love our neighbor as ourselves."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14204483

[StoryTeller]

1. Wow.

I want to be like that when I grow up. I want the twilight years of my life to be as full of peace, humility, and reflection as that. Actually, I would like my entire life to be characterized by that.

I really admire the way he was so open and humble about his mistakes and how he was willing to show his inner journey and the way his own beliefs have changed and been shaped by his experiences. Some of his comments were really poignant--a little regret mixed in with a whole lot of wisdom, and much peace. Reading it just made me feel peaceful and grateful for the life I have.

And encouraged. I'm 31, so the idea of being 80-some years old and bedridden isn't a happy thought. But the picture I got was that even though physically he is limited, his spirit is growing deeper and wiser. It isn't the dark, depressing picture of aging that I normally see. This was hopeful.

Thanks for posting this.

[nosillies]

2. And to think some would call him a flip-flopper.

There is great wisdom in his reflections.