When Your Best Isn’t “Enough”

Melvin Graham is the younger brother of Dr. Billy Graham. One Sunday morning, many years ago, Melvin was sitting at home, reading his Bible. For some time he had felt completely overshadowed by his famous brother. In fact, he felt so inadequate as a Christian that he had stopped attending church.

Looking back on that time of discouragement, he recalled, “I couldn’t witness. I couldn’t speak publicly like my brother, I had no education to speak of – I just felt like a nothing.”

As he was thumbing through his Bible, he happened upon the story of Moses in Exodus 4, where the Lord speaks from a burning bush and appoints Moses to be His spokesman. “Oh, Lord, I have never been eloquent”, objects Moses. “I am slow of speech and tongue”.

Those words of Moses resonated like a clanging bell within the soul of Melvin Graham. That was his story! That story gave him a vision of how God wanted to use his life. Melvin Graham might not be Billy Graham, he might not possess the eloquent tongue of his brother, but Melvin Graham could offer to God everything he was and everything he had: his willingness, his obedience, and his responsive spirit.

Melvin Graham allowed God to tell His Story through Melvin’s story. He became a living example of narrative evangelism.

What about you?

Where do you believe that you have limitations that might prevent you from being used by God?

Is there someone in the Bible who shared your limitations whom God used powerfully?

Can you envision some ways in which God might use your limitations to tell His Story?

Are you willing to allow God to tell His Story through your story?

Adapted from The Power of Story by Leighton Ford; copyright 2015 by Leighton Ford

Image cred: billygraham.org