Billy And Ruth : A Challenging Testimony

A True Life Story

As a senior in high school a young guy found himself in a dark classroom with a girl who begged him to have sex. Instead of rounding the bases and going illegally intimate, he fled away like Joseph did in the Bible (Gen 39:7-12).

When he was 19 years old, he attended the University of Florida and was engaged to be married with this beautiful young woman Emily Cavanaugh. She was a dark-haired college classmate with whom he fell in love and proposed to her in the summer, even though they had known each other for only one semester. Her reluctance to immediately answer worried him! She had to think about it! After months of deliberation; Emily said yes in the fall and finally accepted his proposal. But one evening at a class party she sat with him on a swing and told him that she had to give back his ring. She said, "I'm not sure we're right for each other. I just don't see any real purpose in your life yet." She was interested in an older student and dumped him for one of his classmates, Charles Massey. She did this because she didn't see in him—goals, plans, responsibility. The 19 year old guy was crushed and devastated. He wrote to a friend, "All the stars have fallen out of my sky."

That 19 year old guy is none other than Billy Graham. He put his search for a wife on hold while he considered whether or not he was called to give himself to a career in full-time ministry. Somehow Emily's rejection seemed to turn his heart toward God's true purpose for his life. After months of struggling with this issue, Billy wandered one night onto the green of a golf course, and yielded to Christ with these words: "All right, Lord! If you want me, you’ve got me. If I'm never to get Emily, I'm gonna follow you. No girl or anything else will come first in my life again. You can have all of me from now on. I'm gonna follow you at all cost."

Two years later he enrolled in Wheaton College and met Ruth. He said: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth was such a godly woman that she thought that he wanted to please God more than any man she have ever met, as a result of it she was interested in him. They married two months after graduation in 1943 and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina. Ruth McCue Bell, was the daughter of a Christian missionary surgeon in China. He and Ruth had three daughters (including Anne Graham Lotz, Christian author and speaker), two sons (including Franklin Graham, who now runs his association), 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

They together had a blessed 64 years of blessed married life. Behind every man there is a successful women people say, Evangelist Billy Graham led nearly 1 billion people to Christ in crusades all over the world in the twentieth century. His ministry is now carried on by his son and even grand children all over the world in this present 21st century. What a blessing he has been to people all over the world. Countless millions will one day surely say to Billy in heaven, "Because of your faithful ministry, we are all present here to be your friends for ever..."

Later Ruth Bell Graham said, "I didn't know when I married Bill all that lay ahead; I wouldn't have had the nerve to marry him. No, I had no inclination of what was going to happen in the future." In that we know that it was God who chose Ruth to be a loving soul mate to this wonderful man of God through whom the world was blessed.

Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.

What lessons we can learn from this great testimony?

Run from sin whenever you are tempted. God allows such situation to see whether you will hear his voice or succumb in to temptation. Each victory is moving you towards God's blessed life of victory over sin and eternal reward of God's favor over your life. When you fail, honestly cry out to God to lead you in the right way and help you do the right thing. All the frustrations and failures that come your way is for your good. Why? Because God is working through it by aligning you bit by bit, inch by inch closer to His perfect will, so that all His purpose for your life might be fulfilled even through the mistakes that you make in your life. When you feel that you have lost a beautiful, costly and valuable thing or person in your life, just remember, God has a better and perfect one already prepared for you. Jesus said, "... Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matt 6:33).

When you put God first in your life, every choice you make will become successful in your life. When it seems all the stars in the sky seem to be falling apart, it is good, because God always has a shining star prepared and custom designed for you to be a life partner somewhere if you commit your life to Him and start to serve God unconditionally to fulfill the purpose of God for your life wholeheartedly. Those who wait for God will never be ashamed, because in His time the Lord will bring the right person to be a soul mate and a spiritual partner in our lives journey. All that God starts, He will sustain. This is the secret to all long lasting marriage for life. Those who serve the Lord will be blessed generation after generation and will be blessed with a long life. God rewards faithfullness and His rewards last for eternity. What are you waiting for dear brothers, sisters and friends? Commit your life to God no matter what age you are, God has the power to turn your life and make it a blessing to someone in need. Serve the Lord with gladness and be faithful in whatever ministry you do for the Lord. The sacrifices might be great, but one thing is for sure, the reward will stay with you and your generations for eternity!