It is easy for me to get discouraged as I pay attention to the political process: local, national and international. I have a close friend who’s been in Washington for over ten years and has a high level job in the Senate. Two weeks ago we spoke and she said, ‘I am thinking of getting out. It is just too nasty around here.’
I wonder, considering our beauty pageant elections and sound byte culture, how many of the strong leaders of the past 150 years or so could get elected today? Abraham Lincoln was awkward looking and wore melancholy on his face. Theodore Roosevelt had bagged too much big game; he busted up trusts; he was also a bit too ‘green’. His cousin, FDR, was physically disabled and probably would not impress on the stump today. Harry S. Truman, o.k. I’ll say it, … maybe a bit too nerdy.Now, I realize that I can be the ‘glass half empty guy.’ I believe that this for me is sinful and I seek help from God. And I share this with you to say, Please, don’t you be glass half empty people! There are enough out there already.
Richard Foster, a favorite devotional writer of mine has said, ‘Superficiality is the curse of our age…The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.’ Of course by ‘deep people’ he means devoted and serious followers of Christ.
How do we become deep people? Well, we recognize where we are and who we are. We are sinners in need of a savior. Deep people look to the Lord for their identity and meaning. Deep people realize that they are brought together by God’s calling and invitation. Deep people also regularly practice submitting their lives and will to the Lord. They do this at home, in quiet; they do this together, in worship. You know some of these deep people. With the Lord’s help we can become like them.
The Psalmist knew of these deep people, too: They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. (Psalm 1.3)
Today we have the opportunity to follow Jesus Christ with our lives. How we respond determines the kind of people we will become.
Blessings,
Ande Myers
