Millard Fuller The Gift of Service, Part 1

Millard Fuller could sell just about anything. When he was six, his father gave him a pig which he fattened and sold for a good price. Soon he was selling more pigs, rabbits, chickens, and even worms to fishermen.

He eventually went to law school and, with a friend, formed a partnership to sell things to raise capital to buy rental real estate. Some items didn’t sell very well (mistletoe) and some did (rubber doormats). When the two graduated in 1960, they discovered they were better at selling than at litigating. They started successfully selling everything from tractor cushions to cookbooks.

Millard married Linda Caldwell and they soon were living in an elegant home with a barn and pasture for saddle horses and a swimming pool. By the time Millard was 29 years old, he was a millionaire. But it all came at a price. He quit attending church, his values slid, and his marriage suffered.

One day, Linda left town to think about the future of their marriage. Millard was left home with their two children. He admits, “The rumbling thunderstorm inside me began to roil.” He realized, “Never before or since have I suffered as I did during those days. Everything else—business, sales, profits, prestige, everything which had seemed so important—paled into total meaninglessness.”

A week later, Fuller happened to hear a phrase on TV that caught his attention. “A planned life can only be endured.” He thought to himself, “That’s what I’m living. And I’m enduring it and suffering.” His plan in life was to get richer and richer and make his company bigger and to acquire more things. And when he died, he would be buried among the rich in the local cemetery.

With the words still ringing in his ears—“A planned life can only be endured”—he phoned Linda and convinced her to meet and talk about their marriage. Perhaps God could save their marriage. Perhaps God could help change the direction of their lives.

Reflect: Sometimes it takes a crisis to jolt us into assessing the direction of our lives. Have you had a difficult experience that turned out to be a blessing?

Key Bible Texts

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:10 KJV)