On Sunday, January 29 God took a hero of mine, former president Jimmy Carter home.  He was 100.  Rosalynn, his beloved wife of 77 years, preceded him last year.  He served the presidency for only one term but served God and His work around the world his entire life.  Till well into his 90s he continued building homes for the needy and teaching Sunday school at his home church in Plains, Georgia.  Till the day he died, he never stopped loving.  A godly life well-lived.

Jimmy Carter did not come from a privileged family; he grew up in a home without running water, but he learned to always be thankful to God for everything.  In his concession speech after losing election to Ronald Reagan, the first thing he said was, “God has been good”.  He lived in the goodness of God and tried his best to emulate Christ his Savior.  Till the day he died, he lived in a small house and always flew commercial; with a big smile on his face, he would shake hands with everybody before reaching his assigned seat in the plane.

In numerous interviews he and Rosalynn openly admitted to arguing over a lot of things from politics to family, but they tried their best to resolve their differences before they went to bed, in obedience to Ephesians 4:26, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry”.  There was one more thing they did: They read the Bible and prayed together every night. Jimmy Carter lived in the Word of God.

There are many things we can learn from this man, but there is one attribute that aptly characterized his life: Consistency. Despite the many different hats he wore throughout his life, he was always the same simple and humble servant of God.  Like the song that says, “Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never,” so was Jimmy Carter.  “Yesterday, today, forever, he was the same.  All may change, but he never.”  And never shall we.

Pastor Paul