Many of you might be surprised to know that Billy Graham actually is not the world’s oldest man…maybe the world’s oldest evangelist…wait no…Oral Roberts was born in January of 1918 and Graham in November of the same year. Crazy, what was it about 1918? Hopefully another inspired year of the last century will turn out to be 1986.
Anyways…My grandmother is a huge Billy Graham fan. Tonight, at her house, I noticed two articles from Graham hanging on her refrigerator door. Now I must confess that I did not read the articles however the very titles struck me in a unique way…Crazy how God does that.
Article 1: Only Christ Can Open the Doors to Heaven
No real news there. For those of us inside of Christian culture, the understanding of Jesus as the only way to an eternal heaven is no shocker. What is a shocker is how we consider this eternal heaven as something in the future. To be eternal is to be timeless. If something is out of time there can be no beginning nor ending. What’s crazy is that this is exactly what Christ has already invited us to experience. When we accept his life as our own, we also accept his history, which is eternal, having no beginning or end. The key then to mastering our little piece of heaven on earth is not our job, our accomplishments, our education, our spouse or leadership abilities but Christ. Only he can open the doors to heaven both today and tomorrow.
With that said…
Article 2: God Cares How We Use Our Time
This was like a slap in the face. I can be really lazy. In my current stage of life, I spend more time talking about and planning for what I’m going to do that I never really seem to do anything. This week I read a BBC article about the world’s oldest man, the UK’s Henry Allingham, 113. 113 years old…seriously? Here are a few of his stats: His life has touched 3 centuries, been ruled by 6 monarchs and has seen 5 generations past his own all in addition to being a WWI survivor.. I began to think about Mr. Allingham’s extraordinary life and wondered what I could accomplish in 113 years. I know it is a popular philosophy to live life like you are dying but what if you actually lived until you were 113. For some, this might allow for some extra years of college however what if someone spent 113 perfecting his or her craft. Think of the wealth of knowledge you could leave to well…five generations! Maybe, if only for a day, lets dream about what we could accomplish if we all had 113 years and perhaps even begin to strive for that goal.
Live long and prosper...
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