Chuck Colson’s life consisted of two distinct 40-year segments. In the first, he was a hard-charging, win-at-any-cost kind of guy. Initially gaining fame as Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man,” he once famously said that he would walk over his grandmother to serve the president.
In the second season of his life, Chuck was a redeemed felon, an advocate for prisoners’ rights, and an inspirational mentor. For many in my generation, he came to embody the very notion of grace. No wonder that one of his favorite historical figures was John Newton, the former slave ship captain, who penned the song Amazing Grace. Chuck experienced grace at a very deep and personal level.
“I shudder to think of what I’d been if I had not gone to prison,” he once reflected. “Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it’s not prosperity or pleasure that’s important, but the maturing of the soul.”
Our Last Conversation
On March 30th, I flew to Washington DC to be part of a religious freedom discussion that Chuck was hosting. As I finished my comments about our stance at Vanderbilt in the selection of chapter leaders, he joyously clinched both fists.
Little did I realize that this would be the last time I would see him on earth. When shaking his hand, I recall thinking that his coloring was not good. Just three hours after my departure, he became dizzy and experienced bleeding on the brain. After lingering in a hospital for three weeks, he passed away on April 21st.
Over the past decade, Chuck and I talked often. He simply loved InterVarsity. “You guys are doing a great work,” he would repeatedly say. He was passionate about our campus mission, our emphasis on the discipleship of the mind and our commitment to social justice.
I recall one evening in 2003 when I was driving alone in the Bay Area. Surfing radio stations, I immediately recognized Chuck’s voice: “InterVarsity is standing strong for the Gospel at Rutgers.” His words were remarkably encouraging to me.
We had just filed suit — our first such action ever — after being expelled from campus. As a new president, I was feeling a tad shaky, and his words buttressed my confidence. Just two weeks before his health failed he again used his daily radio commentary to support our position at Vanderbilt.
Internal Struggle
I always sensed a battle going on within Chuck. This bull of a man — all ideas, energy, and passion — struggled to bring everything in his life under the lordship of Jesus. It was no easy journey moving from self-reliance to divine-reliance.
That’s what made him so fascinating. Observing him was like watching a modern-day apostle Paul. The very parts of Chuck’s character that made him such an effective leader — brilliance, tenacity, clarity of focus — also brought opportunities for pride, indignation, and conflict.
But Chuck fought these temptations. Over the last decade of his life — when I knew him — he was a tempered warrior, a sagacious saint. A later-in-life convert, he had been a man of rough edges and sharp elbows.
But, like Paul, he submitted to the Lord’s discipline over multiple decades. The result? An amazing testimony not only of God’s saving grace but also of His transforming grace. Chuck Colson, age 80, was a very different man from Chuck Colson, age 40.
Personal Reflections
Chuck’s memorial service is being held in the National Cathedral in Washington on May 16th. I plan to attend and pay tribute to a man who inspired me in at least three ways.
First, Chuck taught me that personal reputation means nothing. As followers of Jesus, this life is not about the esteem in which others hold us. Rather, it is about how the Lord views us. This liberating paradox — that only as slaves of Christ are we truly free — allowed Chuck to transcend the very public failures of his first 40 years.
Second, Chuck’s emphasis on world-view impacted me deeply. His best-selling book, Loving God, is a testament to the truism that ideas have consequences. In this age of shoddy thinking and lazy apologetics, he stood as a giant of theological clarity and cultural engagement.
Finally, Chuck’s commitment to the next generation of Christian leaders directly affected my life. It is my desire to emulate him in this regard, to pour myself into those who will take the leadership baton in the future.
Like so many others, I owe a debt of gratitude to Chuck Colson. His life inspires me to love God more fully, to embrace grace more completely, and to serve humanity more sacrificially.
