have. But God can be trusted, even when life seems at its darkest.
From the cross, God declares, ‘I love you. I know the heartaches
and the sorrows and the pains you feel, but I love you.’
“This has been a terrible week with many tears. But also it’s been
a week of great faith.... And [remember] the words of that famil-
iar hymn that Andrew Young quoted, ‘Fear not, I am with thee. Oh,
be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.’“
Despite his frailty, Billy’s presence, poise, and message touched
the sorrows and fears and brought hope and a deeply Christian
response to his nation and to the world. He found the inner
resources to rise to that momentous occasion.
More than twenty years before that service, we sat in a restau-
rant with a close friend of Billy’s who had gone to college with
him. In his 60s, this Christian leader had just retired. “Billy should
hang it up now,” he told us. “He should shift to a role of senior
statesman and retire from all the pressure of carrying the weight
of his organization.” He said this in loving concern for Billy, and,
indeed, we thought it likely that with all the health problems Billy
was already experiencing that he would change his pace and get
off the leadership point and out of the spotlight’s glare.
Instead, Billy continued for another quarter century of hold-
ing meetings all over the world; continued in the nitty-gritty of
leading his organization; continued to sweat over the funding of
bringing ten thousand evangelists to Amsterdam three different
times; continued to appear on news shows to represent the gospel;
continued to minister to every U.S. president of his era and par-
ticipate in their inaugurations; continued making countless pub-
lic appearances while keeping up private connections with soul
mates. In the phrase voiced by President George W. Bush when
Billy was hospitalized and unable to attend the funeral of Ronald
Reagan, Billy was “the nation’s pastor”—but he was also the
leader of an organization and of a vast movement.
How could he maintain the strength and sense of commitment
to do all that, not only in his last decades but throughout the
unrelenting pressure of the leadership sprint/marathon he has
run for sixty years?
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham