On one of my plane rides this past month, I watched a new documentary about the late Reverend Billy Graham. The film is called Billy Graham: An Extraordinary Journey. It is a wonderful summary of the life of Graham and the prolific reach of his ministry. There was one thing in particular about the documentary that has caused me to deeply ponder the work of an evangelist (and any other work in this life, for that matter). The film made it clear that while Graham was a world famous preacher, he always focused on the message he carried. In other words, when he traveled and spoke to packed stadiums around the world, he could have exploited his celebrity status to bring attention to himself. But he didn’t. He maintained a singular focus on bringing the story of God’s love and redemption for humanity through the person of Jesus Christ.
Billy Graham served the work to which he was called. That is an idea espoused by the 20th Century British author Dorothy Sayers. In her Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine, she said,
“There is, in fact, a paradox about working to serve the community, and it is this: that to aim directly at serving the community is to falsify the work; the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work.”
Sayers is saying that whatever our work or calling, we should serve the work in a way that stewards the work and aims towards excellence in the work. By doing so we will serve the common good of others, rather than the other way around. If Graham did this out of order, he would have preached in order to tickle the ears of his audiences. Instead, he focused on being excellent at the work of staying true to the message (regardless of whether people liked it or not) and that in turn served others.
What is your work and calling? What is the message or content of your work? How does this speak to what you do?
