Interview - Franklin Graham

Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, came on The Matt Friedeman Show to talk about his father's newest book, Nearing Home. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview.

Is your father pleased with his legacy?

Of course, I would say yes. He loves his family.

At this stage in life, he takes time with the family; there's family coming to the home almost every day. He's still the head of the family.

What has been his least favorite thing about growing older?

Just not being able to do as much.

One of the unfortunate things is that he's lost the ability to read. Even in doing this book, he had to verbalize it so people could take it down. It was a little bit harder for him to do this.

But his mind is sharp.

What about the best thing?

I think he's got more time to reflect and more time to pray. This is one of the benefits of losing some of your strength; he's able to focus more than when he was fully capable.

He spends some time every day praying for family and friends. He prays for the nation. He's very concerned with the direction our nation is going in the last few years.

There's a chapter in this book called "Don't retire from life". What is that about?

There are a lot of people who just quit. They quit life. They retire and they don't do anything. He wants to encourage people to stay active.

Many older people feel like they're not needed, not wanted; it's important that they get involved.

How does your father feel about the explosion of the gospel in Asia and Africa?

He's just elated. Especially with technology today, we're able to go into countries and take the gospel where it would've never seemed possible.

The Billy Graham Evangelical Society is still pushing that as hard as we can.