I never got a chance to meet Billy Graham or hear him speak but I, like so many others, have been profoundly impacted by His life. I’ve heard my parents talk about going to one of his crusades and even have read books and stories about his life. It’s truly an incredible story of how God can use an ordinary man to accomplish extraordinary things.

A few years ago I went to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. While all the displays about crusades, crowds, and meeting presidents were exciting to see I was most impacted by one of the little television displays tucked away in the middle of all the memorabilia. This TV display featured one of Billy Graham’s last public interviews where he was bluntly asked if he could go back and change anything, what would he change? His answer still impacts me today. Billy Graham answered the interviewer by telling him that he wished he would have spent more time with Jesus. He said he would have traveled less and done less so that he could have had more time with the Lord.

If you could go back and change anything, what would you change?

Billy Graham’s answer to that simple question reminds me so often that our life isn’t satisfied by big accomplishments, crowds, accolades or knowing the famous people of our time. Life is most fulfilling when we abide and connect to the life giver himself. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We encounter the fullness of life when we give our lives to knowing Jesus.

I believe that sometimes the greatest wisdom we can glean in life is while talking to those on their death beds or at the end of their careers and asking them what they really would do differently. When I heard Billy Graham share his insight of what he would change it caused me to make a resolve that I wouldn’t allow the opportunities or ambitions of this life hinder me from connecting with Jesus. May we all look back at our lives and be able to say that we gave ourselves fully to know God and to walk in obedience to His great commandment.

-Andrew Chalmers