who had been recommended to him as a wise counselor and spir-
itual director.
“Bill, I want you to come up with a word that characterizes
how you feel right now,” she said. “What’s the first word that
comes into your mind?”
“I feel raped,” said Bill.
“Who has raped you?”
Bill told us later, “The first word that came to mind was God.”
But he said to Ann, “I know theologically that God doesn’t rape
anybody, but I feel raped by God.”
“Who else has raped you?”
“The church. Everybody comes to me for something, but no
one takes care of me. I can ask for anything for somebody else,
but I never can ask for anything for myself. I feel like an orange:
the church has squeezed every bit of juice out of me.”
“Anybody else?”
“Yeah, the community has raped
me. Everybody depends on my net-
works. Any organization in the com-
munity that wants money asks me to
write their proposals.”
Bill smiled as he recalled the con-
versation. “Finally she wisely said—and I’ve learned to do this
with others, ‘Would you mind if I change your image? Let’s
change the image from that of rape to that of a farm pump. Let’s
say that everybody who comes by grabs the handle and pumps.’
And I nodded, ‘They sure do.’”
Ann pressed on. “Have you read those passages in the Bible
about being a servant?”
“Yes,” said Bill. “Those are the ones that got me into this trouble.”
“Do you believe them?” Ann asked.
“Yeah,” Bill said, “I believe them, but it doesn’t feel good.”
“The real problem is your pipe isn’t deep enough,” Ann said.
“You’re pumping surface water, so by 10:30 in the morning,
they’ve pumped you dry. Deep down there are underground
streams. If you can get your pipe down there, there’s so much
The Leadership Secrets of Billy GrahamAll the good from the Saviour
of the world is communicated
through this book. All things
desirable to man are
contained in the Bible.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN