MercyMe’s Bart Millard Says Billy Graham’s Prayer for Son Changed ‘My Life’
By Movieguide® Contributor
It’s always an encouragement when somebody prays for your sick child, but it’s especially encouraging when it is renowned evangelist Billy Graham.
That is what happened to MercyMe’s Bart Millard when his son, Sam, then 2 years old, was diagnosed with diabetes. Millard was originally supposed to perform at one of Graham’s crusades at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl stadium but was with his son at the hospital.
“I’m in Dallas, and I get a call, and they said, ‘Hey, can we just fly you out for a couple hours because Dr. Graham wants to pray for your son?” Millard told Ally Domercant on the “Snapshot Testimony” podcast.
Millard had not met him previously, and when he got to meet him, he was “awestruck.”
“I felt like he had to hold me up. I just lost it and just to hear him pray for my son and say his name over and over. Man, I can hardly tell you what he actually said. I was so in awe,” the singer recalled.
“[W]hat’s craziest when we were finished, he was like, you don’t have to sing a thing. You can go back to be with your son if you want to,” Millard said.
Millard ended up singing one of his band’s signature hits “I Can Only Imagine” before returning to Dallas later that night. That encounter with Reverend Graham was 20 years ago but has had a profound impact on him since.
“[F]or something so heavy — and it wrecked me when someone says they can’t fix your son — and for God to show up in the most epic way. I mean… you can’t script that,” the father-of-five said. “[T]o have all of that happen was like, if that didn’t change the trajectory of my life, I don’t know what will.”
With the uncertainty that comes with such a diagnosis as diabetes, Millard said Graham’s prayer was the affirmation that he needed that God had something special planned for his son.
“My whole attitude changed. The sense of hopelessness became, ‘God put this in our lap for a reason,’” he said. “I don’t know what it is whether it’s the fact that we can take care of him financially and spiritually. We’re gonna do everything we can, and I’ve tried to pour that into Sam saying, ‘Man, you know, God didn’t curse you; he set you apart.’”
The “Spoken For” singer said that his son didn’t initially realize the significance of the meeting with Graham until later on in life.
“I had a chance to try explain, ‘Man, this dude is like a patriarch, he’s the guy.’ It was funny because I tell them all the time,” Millard said.
He says that was a teachable moment of how people respond to Jesus, in that people don’t appreciate who He is until they get to know Him.
“Not much is gonna change…before I explain to you what happened, you need to know exactly who Billy Graham was. And yeah, and then he got it,” he added.
This revelation has helped Millard have more grace than in the past for those outside the Christian faith who may be apathetic or even irreverent towards Jesus.
“We just need to show who He is and not necessarily whether it’s preaching but living our lives, live in a way that they’re like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what you have, but I want it,’ and that’s when things change,” he said. “That’s the whole point of being an example, being like Christ.”
“I used to get so aggravated when I thought people were intentionally disrespecting, maybe they are, but it still comes down to they just don’t know who he is,” the Texas native said.
After the death of Graham in 2018, Millard posted a tribute to the late evangelist, recalling his meeting with the beloved preacher.
“Of all the amazing things Dr. Billy Graham has done for the kingdom of God, nothing will resonate more with me than that single moment. Thank you God for Billy Graham. And I rejoice knowing, after so many years of faithfulness, he is now truly seeing as Christ sees,” part of his post read.
Besides his passion for music, Millard also is a huge sports fan, as he pointed out in an Instagram post towards the beginning of the Major League Baseball season.
“I love the month of April, cuz that’s when my instagram algorithm changes to all things baseball,” his post read.
Millard recently shared how he and his three sons Sam, Charlie and Miles share a love of baseball and how it is a point of bonding for them, as Movieguide® recently reported:
It was so much fun to watch,” Millard said about the Texas Rangers’ last season. “It was amazing ’cause I’ve got five kids. I’ve got three boys. The youngest is 12; the oldest is 22.”
“And so all three of them are just in the sweet spot, and they’re rabid Rangers fans,” the singer said. “I’ve raised them up well. So that was a blast.”
For Millard, the memories they make together as they share their love for the same teams are special.
“Hopefully, it’s memories they’ll have the rest of their lives—us just dancing in the living room and going nuts and going to games. We went to probably seven or eight home games there in Dallas, which is the most we’ve ever done while living in Nashville and just loving it,” he said. “And my 12-year-old is the most rabid, so I’ve got a few years left in the old tank.”
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