I’ve heard it said many times that President Jimmy Carter accomplished as much or more in life after serving as president of the United States than he did during his four years in office. Watching the eruption of media recollections of his life since he passed away Sunday at age 100, I have to concede as much.

I don’t recall anything firsthand about Carter’s presidency. It’s not that it was that unimpressive; I just wasn’t born yet. I’m a Reagan baby and, considering I was born toward the end of his first term and was only five when he left office, I think the first U.S. president I saw in real time and actually understood what I was seeing was George H.W. Bush.

But I don’t recall a time when I didn’t know who President Carter was. Growing up, I can’t say I had any real firm impression of him, other than that he was from nearby Georgia and had been president. Reagan was pretty revered in my conservative part of the deep South; the elder Bush was as much of a Dana Carvey character on Saturday Night Live as he was a president in my young mind. It probably wasn’t until President Clinton took office during my teenage years that I began to form any real opinions about whether the sitting president was doing a good job or not.

But, as I got older, the two things I knew about Carter sort of seemed to contradict one another: He couldn’t get the hostages out of Iran and he was always doing something to help people. Every time I heard about him in a historical context, it seemed to be about what he didn’t accomplish in office, yet every time I saw him doing something in real time, it was something selfless. 

Once I got to college and realized I did not, in fact, know everything about the world, I learned a lot more about President Carter and his time in office. I won’t bog you all down with a history minor’s opinion of the fairness of a past president’s legacy, but I will say it’s very tough to imagine he wasn’t making the decisions he thought were right for America. And I say that because, if the old adage is true and actions do speak louder than words, the last 40 years of Mr. Carter’s life alone demonstrate his love for people.

After leaving office, Carter quietly spent his time building houses for the poor, helping fight diseases in places like Africa and showing us all what a devoted husband and father looked like. He won a Noble Peace Prize during this time and was a shining example of what a leader should be.

I didn’t live through Mr. Carter’s presidency, no. But, I really didn’t need to in order to see what kind of man he was. I lived through 41 years of his example outside the Oval Office. And while I still can’t claim to know as much about him as I do other presidents, what I do know about him has been awe inspiring. 

John 15:13 says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

And no, President Jimmy Carter did not give his life for people. But, he sure did live it for them. 

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.