The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham

deserve this, just punch me in the mouth.” His light comment car-

ries heavy truth about how dangerous success can be to our egos.

Think Large; It’s Not Egocentric
Missionary statesman Frank Laubach lived with zest and pro-
ductivity, traveling the globe and writing more than fifty books,
creating the “each-one-teach-one method,” which pulled millions
from illiteracy. He received many honors, and when presented
with a Man of the Year Award said, “The Lord will not wish to
count my trophies, but my scars.”
He had his world-class accomplishments and his ego in per-
spective.
It’s interesting to see in his letters to his father, at age forty-
five, when his largest contributions were yet to come, the pow-
erful, spiritual resurgence that caused him to say, “I would find
God’s will, though every fiber in me said, no.” Yet this intensity
gave him a freedom. He felt “like one who has had his violin out
of tune with the orchestra and at last is in harmony with the uni-
verse.... Every day is tingling with the joy of a glorious discov-
ery. That thing is eternal. That thing is undefeatable. You and I
shall soon blow away from our bodies. Money, praise, poverty,
opposition, these make no difference.”
And yet, with that perspective—that earthly accomplishment
meant little—he prayed, “God, what have you to put into my
mind now if only I can be large enough?” He thought a waiting,
eager attitude would “give God the chance He needs,” and appar-
ently it did. From that time, until he died at age eighty-five,
Laubach accomplished “large” things far
beyond his dreams. Ego, in accomplish-
ing these large things, wasn’t an issue,
and that was evident in this man who
felt “in harmony with the universe.”
He expressed interesting ideas about self, saying that “con-
cealment of the best in us is wrong.” Laubach saw himself “sim-
ply carried along each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far
beyond myself.”

The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham

If you plan to build a house of

virtues, you must first lay

deep foundations of humility.

AUGUSTINE