{"id":1431,"date":"2014-11-10T01:14:59","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T01:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2014-11-08T23:26:32","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T23:26:32","slug":"food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html","title":{"rendered":"Food for Thought:  Billy Graham&#8217;s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-134\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg\" alt=\"Maureen Pratt Picture 1\" width=\"246\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>On Friday evening, November 7, I was channel surfing when I happened upon a special program to honor evangelist and preacher Billy Graham&#8217;s 96th birthday (Rev. Graham was born on November 7, 1918). What drew me into it was the amazing array of individuals &#8211; politicians, entertainers, preachers, writers, and others &#8211; who took the time to go on camera and give truly heart-felt witness to the impact Rev. Graham has had throughout his career. As I watched, I marveled at the footage, much of it grainy and black-and-white, showing Rev. Graham as a younger man, preaching to thousands of people at a time, or sitting in prayer with one or two individuals.<\/p>\n<p>And, as I watched, I rejoiced in two things: The power of the Gospel to move hearts and claim souls, and the dedication of one person to travel and give of himself so that the Word would reach fertile ground.<\/p>\n<p>I found \u00a0out later that the program was produced and aired on TBN (http:\/\/www.tbn.org\/watch-us\/our-programs\/billy-graham-birthday-special). I don&#8217;t know if it will air again, or be available for viewing elsewhere, but it&#8217;s worth a look if you ever get the chance.<\/p>\n<p>What a life!<\/p>\n<p>Praise God!<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday evening, November 7, I was channel surfing when I happened upon a special program to honor evangelist and preacher Billy Graham&#8217;s 96th birthday (Rev. Graham was born on November 7, 1918). What drew me into it was the amazing array of individuals &#8211; politicians, entertainers, preachers, writers, and others &#8211; who took the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1242],"tags":[1340,1341,1342,1345,1344,1343],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-for-thought","tag-billy-graham","tag-billy-grahams-birthday","tag-evangelism","tag-preaching-the-gospel","tag-the-gospel","tag-the-word-of-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Food for Thought: Billy Graham&#039;s Birthday - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Food for Thought: Billy Graham&#039;s Birthday - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday evening, November 7, I was channel surfing when I happened upon a special program to honor evangelist and preacher Billy Graham&#8217;s 96th birthday (Rev. Graham was born on November 7, 1918). What drew me into it was the amazing array of individuals &#8211; politicians, entertainers, preachers, writers, and others &#8211; who took the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-10T01:14:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-08T23:26:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Food for Thought: Billy Graham's Birthday - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Food for Thought: Billy Graham's Birthday - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"On Friday evening, November 7, I was channel surfing when I happened upon a special program to honor evangelist and preacher Billy Graham&#8217;s 96th birthday (Rev. Graham was born on November 7, 1918). What drew me into it was the amazing array of individuals &#8211; politicians, entertainers, preachers, writers, and others &#8211; who took the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2014-11-10T01:14:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-08T23:26:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html","name":"Food for Thought: Billy Graham's Birthday - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-10T01:14:59+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-08T23:26:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2012\/11\/Maureen-Pratt-Picture-1-246x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2014\/11\/food-for-thought-billy-grahams-birthday.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Food for Thought: Billy Graham&#8217;s Birthday"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}