When Billy Graham conducted his 1957 "Crusade" in New York City's Madison Square Garden, I was in my final year of high school; the next fall I would leave home to attend college. Our New Jersey congregation rented a bus on many occasions to transport people to the Graham meetings, and I was a frequent attender.
On one occasion, I invited some of my high school friends--none of them Christians--to go along. Throughout much of the service my focus was on them: How were they responding? Might it be that they would become Christians as a result of this evening?
Then came Billy Graham's invitation for people to take the long walk to the area in front of his pulpit to make a public commitment to Christ. During those moments when we sang "Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me," I was overcome with a profound sense that God was speaking directly to me through Billy Graham's words. Surrounded by thousands of people, I felt that I was alone in the presence of the Eternal. And so I made the long trek forward.
I won't say that I "became a Christian" that night. My life had long been shaped by a Christian upbringing. But it was a transforming moment of making the Christian faith my own in a very personal way. As a teenager in Madison Square Garden I discovered a sacred space in a way that forever influenced my spiritual journey.
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