Tribute to Ruth Graham (1920-2007)

It's difficult to put into words a fitting tribute to Ruth Graham.

Much has been said already about this wonderful woman of God who faithfully followed God's call on her heart to support, encourage and provide much of the vision for the extraordinary ministry of Rev. Billy Graham.

For six decades, Ruth Graham has been not only the wife and mother of his children but also the best friend to her world acclaimed evangelist husband, the Rev. Billy Graham.

I can only imagine the pain and the sense of loss for Billy Graham to announce this past week that his “soul mate” was nearing death. The family was able to all gather together at her bed side and share the last moments together, this side of glory.

"Ruth is with Jesus" is one of the headlines that I read from a secular newspaper as I looked for inspiration in trying to write this tribute. The comment "Ruth is with Jesus" caught my eye and I couldn't help but smile as I thought of the tremendous impact that she and her husband have had on the people of this country and around the world in sharing the love of Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross, since their marriage in Montreat, North Carolina in 1943.

It's so amazing to see Montreat again as the location for the public memorial service scheduled for 2 p.m. this Saturday at the Montreat Conference Center. The Graham family certainly knows how to put down roots and while I never had the priviledge of meeting Mrs. Graham, I'm still in awe of how well she was able to keep her family together!

One of the books on my library is "Just as I am" the autobiography of Billy Graham. Being in Christian ministry, I suppose it's seems like a cliché for me to say that Billy Graham is one of my heroes. It would be like one of the GOP presidential candidates saying that he liked Ronald Reagan. At the same time, it's hard to find anyone quite like Billy Graham, or anyone quite as supportive and loving as his beloved wife, Ruth.

In this autobiography, Billy Graham included a chapter entitled, "A Half-Century of Friends". In it Billy Graham recalls that over the (then) fifty years of his ministry, most of the time he and his wife Ruth were not ministring to "famous" people. While they were most known for their friendship with presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens, Billy said that 98 percent of the people that they ministrered to were not the "rich and famous". Instead, they were those who they shared what Billy Graham called the "central theme of the Christian Faith: God's forgiveness in Christ is available to all no matter who we are or what we have done."

I thank God for Ruth Graham. God thank you for giving her to Billy, allowing her to be his partner, his wife and his "soul-mate". May God give us even a portion of the grace that she has.

Gallup Asked The Wrong Question

The latest results from Gallup’s annual "Values and Beliefs" poll are in. According to Gallup, “Americans are very pessimistic about the current state of moral values.” (I guess we are to be surprised.) Gallup's survey was based on telephone interviews with 1,003 adults and indicated that only less than 20% of those surveyed believed that the moral values of the country are positive and nearly 50 percent felt that the morals of the country are “poor.”

Unfortunately, Gallup asked the wrong question.

It's easy to respond that there is a general environment of "poor" values, ethics or integrity when you ask a general question about other people. Here is the question that was asked by Gallup:

"Thinking for a moment about moral values: How would you rate the overall state of moral values in this country today -- as excellent, good, only fair, or poor?"

Let's see if we can rephrase this question:

"Thinking for a moment about your moral values: How would you rate your personal integrity - excellent, good, only fair, or poor?"

You see, when the issue of Integrity becomes personal, it becomes a little more relevant doesn't it? Now, asking this question may get a little sticky. We don't know whether people have the integrity to answer a question about their own integrity with integrity!

But at least there would be no confusion about the question.

When we talk about other people's integrity, it's easy to miss the point. Those people are likely not accountable to you. Politicians of course are in an entirely different category so we won't comment on politicians.

But what about you?

What is your integrity like at work? Do you do walk the walk or merely just talk the talk? Do you misrepresent the facts, even a little to the boss? Are we faithful in the "little things" as Jesus talked about in the Gospel of Luke?

I've had the great opportunity to spend some time working with some of the "down-and-out" at a men's shelter in Pittsburgh. After my first visit, I learned much about communicating with these men. They didn't need to be reminded of their vice, just the opportunity to turn to a Savior. They knew they had fallen short, they just needed to be encouraged to reach up for help.

Integrity is terribly important. At home, at the office, with our children, our spouse, our friends and in public, our integrity, or the lack of integrity is often the primary cause of both blesses and curses.

Dr. Henry Cloud comments in his book Integrity: the courage to meet the demands of reality, that integrity can be defined "as the state of being whole and undivided."

We'll look at Integrity often in this Blog as I'm convinced that it is the most misunderstood character quality and actually the most likely to have an impact....both for good or for evil.

80,000 Miles

I happened to look down at my odometer today and saw my little ministry-provided 2002 Focus was turning 80,000 miles. Now, I realize that this milestone may not be a "big whoop" for many of you. I know a few people that have that many miles on a two-year-old car and also have met people that have well over 200,000 miles on their car...but for me, it's a milestone.

You see, for most of my adult life, I was a Ford employee. Ford and "Generous Motors" our rival across the freeway in Detroit were both known for providing good company benefits including great opportunities to buy, lease and drive new cars. As a result, our family always had pretty new cars. When I left the company I turned in two new cars that my wife and I drove and also called my daughter and had her turn in her Ford Explorer at the local Ford dealership in Illinois.

While it was always fun getting a new car, sometimes it was a little ridiculous. Back in the late 1980's, Ford had a small problem selling all of the cars we built (a reoccurring problem actually) and Ford company car control was "turning" the sales cars in the fleet, two and three times a year. As a result, I had three different 1989 Lincoln Continentals in a twelve month time frame. I remember loaning one of them to my Pastor and his wife on a couples retreat and he confessed later that he enjoyed driving it but intentionally parked it a block away so no one would accuse them of living "high-on-the-hog".

So, my having 80,000 miles on a great-running, nice looking silver Ford Focus is kind of a milestone for me. Most of my friends would understand and certainly agree that driving a five-year old compact car doesn't make you feel any less of a "success" than if I you were driving a new Lincoln Continental (they are Fords after all).

I'm reminded of that verse in Psalm 37: 25, "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." This entire Psalm is a response to that often asked question,"why do the wicked prosper and the good suffer?" Psalm 37 answers in verse after verse, that the present situation is only temporary--God will untimately reverse things, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked.

The thing that I like is that God can also reverse your thinking. God will bless you and allow you to understand that He has provided everything for you to enjoy and that our focus (get the pun?) is to be on the people we get to love and care for and not the things that are strictly material, and will ultimately just rust away and really don't matter.

Memorial Day: One life at a time

This weekend is a holiday. The traditional three-day weekend which announces the beginning of summer. In particular, it is also Memorial Day weekend and it's very fitting that we pause for just a moment, especially with our nation at war, to remember our heroes. I suggest we try to remember them one life at a time.

If you listen to any of the news reports this weekend, it's likely that you may be reminded of the literally thousands that have fallen in our nation's wars. At the same time, the numbers (while important) sometime discount the opportunity to understand that these are individuals who have given their all. Often for a cause that at the time was at misunderstood or maligned. Yet, these brave men and women served, took up the challenge and many died.

Freedom is won, one truth at a time and one life at a time. These wars have been fought because ultimately there are many things worth dying for. Typically fighting for people that were helpless, unable to fight and find victory for themselves.

Fighting for those who can't fight or help themselves is actually quite analogous to what Christ did for us on Calvary. Romans 5:6 says, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

Those of us that have come to understand the truth of this verse in Romans have come to understand that this victory that has been won for us is personal and individual. It comes from Christ, one life at a time.

This is Memorial Day weekend so let's remember each of these lives, one life at a time. There were thousands, and each one individually made a difference:

• The American Revolution had over 4,000. The Civil War which created so much of the history of my adopted state of Virginia had over 800,000 casualties on both the North and the South.
• World War I was the "Great War" to my grandparents generation. My grandfather was one that came back from the European theater. Over 116,000 did not. World War II followed closely thereafter and over 400,000 Americans lost their lives that we may have freedom.
• Korea and Vietnam were never very popular. Likely because 36,000 died in Korea and 58,000 in Vietnam; yet things (for us) remained relatively unchanged.
• Today, our men and women, our sons and daughters, are fighting what started as a US led coalition called "Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. The conflict continued with the US led coalition that took the fight to Iraq in March of 2003. That fight continues and over 3,400 have died.

Memorial Day: One life at a time. Our victory, One Life for all time.

Irony, you are the Big Three

As a former auto guy, I read with some interest and with more than a little bit of irony that the announcement that the now infamous Daimler-Chrysler merger back in 1998 has been undone. Back when it was announced, the world press heralded it as a harbinger of the future globalization of not only the auto industry but all of the world economy.

I didn't see it that way back in 1998 and it looks like perhaps that opinion was correct.

The new Daimler-Chrysler (back in 1998) was to be a cost-efficient automobile behemoth with over 500,000 employees and annual revenue of $140 billion. The new company, at that time, would be the fifth largest automobile producer and the efficiency gained by the combination of these to entities was to be a competitive advantage that would "challenge GM, Ford and Toyota". The Chrysler Chairman at the time, Robert J. Eaton, said that that the World class products and brands (would) complement each other, and Daimler-Benz Chairman Juergen E. Schrempp, said that the two companies would be a "Perfect fit of two market leaders for further global growth"

So much for the predictions of two very over-paid people.

Today, if you read the fine print you'll find that the German executives of Daimler had to pay the American Cerberus Capital Management company over $1 billion to take the now-failing Chrysler Division off their hands.

They paid $38 BILLION for this company in 1998 which is less than ten years ago and now have to pay another BILLION to get rid of the thing.

That's about $40 billion in 10 years, $4 billion a year or about $11 million a day.

Pretty expensive mistake don't you think?

Now, what is the point? Why mention this in this Blog?

Simple: All that is said to be "new and improved" isn't. Just because people that run very large organizations say something is "good" doesn't mean it is.

I've found that truth in the statement that often the simple can confound the wise. The Bible says that God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, the weak things to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27-28).

Big isn't always, "better" and new isn't always "improved". The strength of Chrysler was their brand image and economies of scale. Automobile companies do well when they focus on the basics, build good cars and keep their costs down.

If you excuse the simple comparison, Churches and other ministries can sometimes get caught up in the "bigger is better" view of reality. While bigger can be better, it is also sometimes less personal and less effective. Smaller ministries are often much more focused on a specific purpose and much more effective in getting the job done.

Recently, I've met some people that are pretty single-focused. God has given them a vision of how they can be helpful in some very small way that makes a difference in His kingdom. These people may not be running large organizations or be people of note, unlikely to be included in biographies of "movers and shakers".

At the same time they are both individually and collectively making a difference in real lives and as a result, we are all better because of their work and ministry.

Just another example of the simple confounding the wise.

Faithful in the Little Things

I've been speaking recently at our conferences on the topic of Integrity. Just this week I changed much of my talk to focus more on the theme of Integrity itself rather than using it as a precursor to engage my audience in how churches and nonprofit groups demonstrate integrity (or the lack thereof).

I'm reminded me of the verse in Luke. "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." (Luke 16:10)

I have used this verse a number of times in talking about money. It's very much in context as Luke starts off this message with Jesus teaching about the unjust steward who cooked the books in order to ingratiate himself with those who could help me after he was fired by his boss.

In talking about integrity however, I realize that it's really about being faithful in the little things.

To me, integrity is really an alignment of our character with the character of God and our behavior as a result reflects God's character.

Neat idea, the proof however is being faithful over time. Faithful in the little things.

I'm convinced that while none of us have been completely faithful, we can demonstrate integrity in all areas of our life. While many of us have a long way to go, if we start now with the little things, we'll be proven ultimately to be faithful in the big things as well.

If you are one of those people that have really failed big time some little test, take heart. God isn't done with you yet and you can start today to begin work again on becoming faithful in the little things.

I don't know why our society has seemingly become so callous that it appears most believe that integrity doesn't matter or somehow a person's character and integrity can be compartmentalized. As if a person that is unfaithful to his wife would never be unfaithful at work. Or a father that doesn't have time to be a "dad" to his young son or daughter would somehow spend the necessary time to do other right things when pressed for time.

Little things are great starting places for us. They don't take a lot of effort, just a simple alignment with those things that we know are right and true.

Thank God for the little things.

Charitable Giving Increases Dramatically

Recently, there have been a few articles related to how charitable giving is changing and also how charitable giving is increasing somewhat dramatically.

Giving USA 2006, which is a compilation of facts and figures on giving in the United States and has information from the Year 2005 ( the latest information available) , stated that Americans gave total contributions of $260.28 billion for 2005, a growth of 6.1 percent. This is a healthy increase in giving and is likely partially attributed to the increased giving due to Tsunami and Hurricane relief, estimated at over $3 billion.

In Arthur Brooks best selling book, "Who Really Cares", the author states, "The data tell us that the conventional wisdom is dead wrong. In most ways, political conservatives are not personally less charitable than political liberals—they are more so."

Brooks goes on to say in the book that the reason for the charitable difference gap isn't so much related to political ideology, i.e. Conservative vs. Liberal, or Republican vs. Democrat, it's that this gap is 100% related to the difference in faith.

That's right, Brooks concludes, "the enormous charity gap remains between religious people and secular people." It seems that because so many people of faith consider themselves to be politically conservative skews the results so that the conservatives appear to give more than liberals. The difference however is the "faith" not the political persuasion, as Brooks discovered in his research that people of faith GAVE, regardless of their political persuasion.

I did some of my own research based on ECFA financial information. ECFA member organizations saw total income increase 13% in the last fiscal year (combination of 2005 and 2006 data). That is more than TWICE the rate of charitable giving overall. ECFA member assets also increased by 22% to a total of more than $30 billion.

While I'd like to attribute the difference between ECFA charities and all charities (13% vs. 6.1%) to something inherent in ECFA accreditation, integrity and financial transparency, I'm going to have to just attribute it to faith.

As it should be!