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Positively Believing
The birth and the testing of Zig Ziglar's faith.

by Randy Bishop

In 1970 Zig Ziglar was broke. His decision two years earlier to move cross-country to a better job fell to pieces when the company went bankrupt. So Ziglar's part-time speaking engagements got his full-time attention, but the rewards were slow in coming.

Over the July 4th weekend of 1972, however, the 45-year-old salesman-turned-speaker found a greater reward.

At the urging of a friend, Ziglar and his wife Jean invited Sister Jessie, an elderly African-American woman with a strong Christian faith, to spend that weekend with them. Though he'd been raised going to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening, and had been baptized at 12 years old, Ziglar had not put his trust in Christ.

Sister Jessie, on the other hand, had no trouble talking about what the Lord had done for her and had no doubt where she would spend eternity. That assurance was what Ziglar wanted and needed, and finally what he got.

"When I awakened that Sunday morning I (had) a peace, a calmness, and an assurance that Christ was Lord, that he was the only way in to heaven," says Ziglar, who now teaches a Sunday school class of 400 to 600 people at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. "I was no longer dependent just on what little I knew about life. I had a source that I could go to at any time and the line would never be busy."

His wife, a Christian already, saw an immediate difference in her husband. Though he'd always tried to be kind, considerate, and hard working, his new Christian faith freed him from an underlying selfishness.

"As I studied the Bible," says Ziglar, "I discovered the more I knew about the Lord the more I loved him, and the more I loved him the more I loved my wife."

A born optimist, Ziglar's positive thinking turned into positive believing, he says, based on the equation: "You + Christ = Enough." He gathered trusted Christian associates around him in his business, and prayer became a part of his pre-speech routine. In his talks, he emphasized (and continues to emphasize) the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of life, quoting experts in those fields.

He signs each book with a Bible verse, noting that an amazing number of people have come to know Christ as a result. "They read the verse, they get in the Book, and God's Word just doesn't return void."

Over the past 30 years, his company, Ziglar Training Systems, has had phenomenal success.

And the Ziglar family has grown closer over the years as the four children—three daughters and a son—have also become Christians. Ziglar's daughter Suzan and her husband Chad Witmeyer were the last to become Christians, shortly after he published Confessions of a Happy Christian in 1978.

In May 1995, Suzan died at age 46 of pulmonary fibrosis. The joyous way she lived the last year of her life taught the family how to die, Ziglar says.

In 1998, he published Confessions of a Grieving Christian to help others cope with similar circumstances.

"I get more letters on that book than on all (my) others combined, and 10 of the others were bestsellers," he says. Knowing that Suzan is in heaven and that God's timing is perfect have helped the family cope with their loss, though they still weep periodically, Ziglar says.

Life does not always go the way he'd like, but he still puts a positive spin on things. When asked how he seemingly stays "up" all the time, Ziglar responds, "How could I be anything but positive. At age 73, I enjoy fabulous health, a beautiful family that loves me very much and whom I love very much. I absolutely love to do the reading and research required for what I do, I love to make the presentations, and I love to stick around and sign books when it's all over."

A Christian Reader original article.

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader).
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