ON CHRISTIANITY

By BILLY GRAHAM

LITTLE ROCK — DEAR REV. GRAHAM: I wish I could be friendly and outgoing like other people are, but I’ve always been a very shy person, and whenever I get in a group I just clam up and don’t say anything. Can God change my personality?

- D.E.

DEAR D.E.: I’m glad God didn’t make us all exactly alike, aren’t you? Think how boring the world would be if we all had exactly the same abilities and personalities! But wedon’t - and that’s the way God meant it to be. The writer of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament declared, “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

In other words,don’t spend all your time wishing you were someone else, or yearning for something God didn’t intend you to have. God knows what you’re like, and He loves you just as you are. In today’s terms we’d probably label the Apostle Peter an extrovert, because he was always taking charge and speaking his mind. Paul’s young companion Timothy, on the other hand, was apparently shy, and Paul had to urge him not to let others dominate him (see 1 Timothy 4:12). Yet God used them both.

Ask God to help you overcome your shyness and become the person He wants you to be. Take steps - perhaps just a few at first - to reach out to others. Get involved in a Bible study or volunteer group in your church, and ask God to help you make a contribution to it, both by what you say and what you do. In addition, ask God to help you discover the gifts He has given you.

Write to Billy Graham in care of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C. 28201 or visit the Web site at:

www.billygraham.org

HomeStyle, Pages 38 on 11/07/2009