Margaret McKenzie | Features Editor
On Sept. 11, Dr. Ravi Zacharias spoke with the Record in a 22-minute phone interview. Given the fact that the well-known evangelist is most likely traveling on any given day – at least 200 days out of the year– and still has to turn down 90 percent of requests for speaking engagements, what were the odds?
Since the interview did indeed happen, it seems safe to say one of Zacharias’ many gifts is an ability to defy mathematics.
Zacharias is the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), an organization with a three-fold focus: “evangelism, under-girded by apologetics, followed by spiritual disciplines,” Zacharias said.
RZIM initiatives include Scholars With a Dream (SWAD), a program which prepares apologists to engage the worldview of Islam; the Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA), a partnership between RZIM and Oxford International University’s Wycliffe Hall; and Wellspring, RZIM’s social justice arm.
Zacharias was chosen to speak at Wheaton’s fall semester special services. Though he does have a previous connection with the college – his daughter Naomi, now an RZIM staff member, graduated from Wheaton in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in business and economics – Zacharias gave his first address delivered to a Wheaton audience last Wednesday. Zacharias opened with his remarkable story, retold anecdotes of powerful encounters with world leaders, confessed his academic misgivings as a young person, and instructed listeners on how to properly pronounce his first name. For readers who may have missed the first chapel message and anticipate ever being on a first-name basis with Zacharias: Ravi rhymes with “lovey” and “dovey.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Record: What do you perceive to be the greatest challenge facing this generation of college students?
RZ: Understanding the uniqueness of Jesus and the explicitness of his claims. It’s a tough thing to come to terms with, given the global mood of syncretism and all-absorption. But truth by definition is exclusive. This generation has trouble understanding the very nature of truth. This generation must address the question, “How do you take that exclusive truth and deliver it with love?” They also have to face societal pressure to fulfill all their longings, whatever those might be.
You mentioned your conversion in chapel. Could you provide us with a few more details?
RZ: I was born in Chennai (India) and raised in Beli where my father worked for the government. I was a very poor performer in school – I had no vision for anything except sports. Hoping to make it professionally, I played cricket through college and high school. Upon facing the reality of living without excelling, I entered a state of despair and tried to take my own life at 17. I received a Bible in the hospital – my mother held it, I was dehydrated by the poison I had taken and couldn’t – and read the words “Because I live, you also shall live.” That verse leaped out of the pages, and I knew right then and there, even though I didn’t know (Jesus), that I had a deep yearning for something of a transcendental nature.
I said, “Jesus, if you are really the author of life, I ask you to rescue me from here, and if you do, I will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of truth.” My whole life was dramatically changed from that moment on.
What is some additional advice you have for students who feel they may be called to ministry?
RZ: It’s a very serious call to take. The most important thing is that they are persuaded in their lives that it is a message of true redemption for all mankind, and to prioritize that by finding a framework to carry that message. Four things need to be present: a giftedness, a God-given passion, the outside affirmation from those who know you, and the circumstances coming into play that make that possible – a push from the inside and a pull from the outside.
What are some ways you have disciplined yourself to draw lines in your own life and how would you advise someone to start?
RZ: It’s important that you draw lines as a preventative before you reach temptation. When I travel, I try to make it a point not to go out at night – I call home, talk to my family, or chat with the friends I’m traveling with. It is important to have an accountability relationship with someone regarding your free time. Drawing lines starts in the discipline of studying the Word and of prayer and does not make provision for the flesh.
Can you elaborate more about “preparation as worship?
RZ: You will never find anyone of any impact globally who was not prepared. You see Moses, the Apostle Paul, our Lord himself – long before he had his public ministry he was being prepared. If you are going into your calling without preparation, you are going in through your own strength, without recognition of the sacredness of the calling with which you have been trusted, without the work that it takes to become an instrument fit for God’s use. Worship is pulling every facet of your life together in an expression of commitment to God. Traditional wedding banns include the phrase, “With my body I thee worship,” which is another way of saying, “I surrender my body for sacred use.” Preparation as service and worship is true surrender to God’s calling.
Photo and Banner courtesy RZIM Media.
Printed in the September 14, 2012, issue of The Wheaton Record. Send comments to the.record@my.wheaton.edu.