I doubt it.’ But Billy was totally serious—‘Maybe you could teach
me a few things.’”
Lon then spoke of Billy’s calling him, asking about his family and
also sharing concerns about his own family issues. “You simply don’t
have the sense you’re with this world-famous person,” said Lon. “If
you hear him talk, he always uses the plural pronoun—never I.”
■ ■ ■Redeeming the ego. What did Smith mean? What has transpired
in Billy Graham’s psyche and spiritual life that has melded him
into such a blend of world-class, driving visionary and meek,
unassuming student?
One of the many brushstrokes in this picture is the way Billy
views himself. We sat in a pancake restaurant in Charlotte with
Graeme Keith, treasurer of Billy’s organization and a lifelong
friend. We had flown there from Wheaton, where the Billy Gra-
ham Center with its great white pillars faces the original classic edi-
fice of Billy’s alma mater. Before it was built, Billy had talked to us
about feeling uncomfortable about the college’s naming it for him.
About two minutes out of Charlotte’s airport, we had turned onto
the new Billy Graham Parkway—a major freeway—and passed
the seventy prime acres slated for his new headquarters and
library. It was hard driving into Charlotte to think of Billy’s having
external aids to control his ego.
Graeme, who himself comes off humbly despite his being a
major force in Charlotte, gets around rather quickly to Billy’s nat-
ural humility. “I was on an elevator with Billy when another man
in the elevator recognized him. He said, ‘You’re Billy Graham,
aren’t you?’
“‘Yes,’ Billy said.
“‘Well,’ he said, ‘you are truly a great man.’
“Billy immediately responded, ‘No, I’m not a great man. I just
have a great message.’”
We thought of his 1954 tour of Europe when he preached in
Mannheim, Germany, where a hostile reporter asked, “What do you
Redeeming the Ego