From the Desk

In more than three years as a residential Liberty University student, I have experienced almost everything there is to do on this campus. I have used countless swipes at the Rot, learned how to snowboard at Snowflex and attended more Convocations than I can remember. I have taken a class with Liberty co-founder Elmer Towns and met Justin Kintzel, Johnnie Moore and other Liberty campus celebrities.

Despite having been through all these things and more, I will always consider my experience at Liberty incomplete for one reason. I never met the late Dr. Jerry Falwell.

I, like nearly every student who has spent even one semester at Liberty, can recite the story of the university’s founding backward and forward, but it was not until I talked to a few of Falwell’s closest friends and colleagues this week that I began to realize exactly how influential this man really was.

Even if you never had the chance to meet him, all you have to do in order to discover how much of an impact he had on others is to find someone who knew him and ask one question: What was Jerry Falwell like? The response you get might surprise you.

Whether they met Falwell one time or 100 times, those who knew him still talk about him as though he was their best friend in the world. With each new story I hear about things such as his passion for God, the audacity of his dreams or the depth of his caring for others, I am even more amazed at how universally loved he was by those who knew him personally.

Although it is disappointing to think that each new class of Liberty students will never get to meet Falwell, I believe that his life and the friendships he left behind are a testament to just how much is possible when you wholly give your life to God.

No, there will never be anyone else with a personality quite like Jerry Falwell, and no, I never had the chance to meet him. But if I have learned one thing from the example his life set, it is that God’s capacity to use those who are willing to serve him will never cease.