Sen. Tim Scott honors the late Sen. Lindsey Graham in tribute at Columbia funeral

COLUMBIA, S.C. — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) paid his respects to his friend and colleague, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, in a tribute during a funeral service in Columbia today. Sen. Scott joined the late senator’s friends, family, and colleagues to honor Sen. Graham’s life and legacy of service. Click here to watch the full remarks. It is good to be home in South Carolina. We love when the world celebrates our heroes, but it is so good to come home to South Carolina. I miss home. And when we feel pain in our hearts, Richard, we need to be home surrounded by people who love us, who know us, who care for us. We are deeply, deeply sorry for your loss. To the Graham staffers, thank you. Thank you for stepping up to the plate. Thank you for protecting and insulating the Graham family. Thank you for going the extra mile. It has been a long two plus weeks. To the Graham family, may the Lord continue to bless you with the strength and the courage that you need to pull together, because this celebration will end in the next day, or two or three, but the wounds won’t go away so quickly. I know you’ll be there for each other. Darline, what a powerful, grace-filled person to watch you under immense pressure show up and show out is a blessing to South Carolina. I see we’ve got some Presbyterians over here. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! That was good. That’s good. Good, good, good. Even the Presbyterians step up here and dance in the Baptist church. Someone should say Amen. Never mind. It is good to be here. I haven’t been here in a couple of years, and we certainly miss Pastor Estep, but it’s good to see him here. I will simply say this that I am going to miss my friend Lindsey Graham, the congressmember who becomes a senator, who becomes a world leader, statesman without any question. I am going to miss my friend Lindsey Graham. I remember Lindsey had great humor and a lot of wit too right. And so I’ll never forget at my wedding, this Monday will be two years ago, sweetheart. I remember our anniversary is coming up on August the 3rd. Always helpful to remember that. Lindsey’s at our wedding. I only invited three or four senators, and Lindsey is talking to this little kid named Case, and Case is in the arms of one of the parents. And Lindsey leans in and says, “Case, I’m so sorry, buddy, there will be no Social Security for you.” Sean, it really happened, brother. It really happened. And it was the kind of moment that everybody just, all the adults, bursted out laughing and poor little Case was like what’s Social Security? I also, President Trump talked about this yesterday, but I think it’s worth repeating. I started a South Carolina prayer breakfast in D.C., and I will tell you that my first call 15 years ago was to Lindsey Graham. And at that time, I did not know that Lindsey, much like myself, we really don’t like mornings. And so I called Lindsey and said, “Lindsey, I need you to be there at my prayer breakfast at 8:30 a.m.” Lindsey said, “Have you ever thought about having a prayer lunch or a prayer dinner?” I said, “Lindsey, it’s already set, man, I need you there.” And he said, “I ain’t coming if Jesus comes before 10 a.m., I am not going to be there.” But Lindsey, committed to his friends, did what I hadn’t seen him do since then. At 8:31 a.m., Lindsey walks through the door Because Lindsey Graham was always committed to his friends, even if it was uncomfortable for him. I did not realize, however, that Lindsey gave lots of advice to kids. This was a new revelation for me. I was talking to Katie Britt, who has two young kids, and she told me that Lindsey actually gave her, Trey, legal advice. The head of the Judiciary Committee giving legal advice to a pretty good attorney in her own right. I had to write this down because I just didn’t believe it. I said, “Well, what did he say?” Well, the legal advice he gave to her two kids is simply this. All the kids in the room, listen to most of it. Don’t sell drugs. On school property. Because the enhanced sentencing guidelines is not worth the risk. That’s good advice. But wow, right? Second advice he gave, not legal advice, was simply this: kids, never do for yourself what someone else will do for you. Third piece of advice: if you, he said, get away with as much as you can for as long as you can. And then one of my personal favorites, I practiced this while I was in school myself. He said, don’t work too hard, just pull your friends down. That’s really good advice. Having failed a couple subjects in high school, Spanish and English, I learned how to do that firsthand. But the advice I most appreciate from Lindsey, he never spoke to me, he lived it. First piece of advice, and I hope that it helps you too, number one, get really comfortable being yourself. Get really comfortable being yourself. But in order to get comfortable being yourself, he would say, through his actions and not his words, you’ve got to know yourself. Know why God created you. Jeremiah 1:5 reminds us that God made Jeremiah a prophet before he was even in his mother’s womb. Sometimes to be yourself and comfortable in your own skin, you’ve got to walk alone. God doesn’t want carbon copies. Lindsey was an original. I would challenge each of us to honor Lindsey Graham by living as originals, God’s imprint on each of us, unique and specific. It reminds me of Romans 12:2 to know the acceptable and perfect will of God. Second lesson that he demonstrated, I actually like when if you’re not a pastor, or the kind of sermon I like to hear is the one that I can only hear with my eyes and feel in my heart. Second one was simply this: learn to stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves. Over 60 million Americans will never have their little feet on the soils of our country. Lindsey Graham always fought for life. He was 100% pro-life when it was convenient and when it was not, and he never apologized for it. If you want to have a conversation about the special needs kids, or if you want to have a conversation about the poor, Lindsey Graham, always, according to Proverbs 31:8, stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves. Lindsey embodied the spirit of that verse, and he did it every single day in a way that you didn’t have to hear it, because you could see it all the time. And finally, Romans 10:9-10, you see, I am going to miss Lindsey, but when I get to heaven, it will feel like for just seconds, because I know eternity is real. And Romans 10:9-10 reminds me that if we confess with our hearts and believe, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Christ was raised from the dead, you shall be saved. And if you’re saved, you get the benefit of spending eternity with the ones you love the most, like Lindsey Graham. And I will tell you, having watched the sermon every day, and I will concede sometimes the sermon would come in colorful language – not found in 2 Timothy 1:7, or maybe 3 Timothy, which there is no 3 Timothy, but it’s colorful language sometimes. But Lindsey was always authentically himself. He always found time to fight for the underdog. And we now all know that he believed in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and the Alpha and the Omega. Let’s make sure we spend eternity with God Almighty, whose son is Jesus, and our good friends like Lindsey Graham. ###