A Fruit-ful Example

     I continue to enjoy my reading of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I am most captivated by Lincoln's character and even his spirituality, even though it seems he was indeed more of a Deist in his belief system than anything else.
   Most impressive was Lincoln's ability to welcome his rivals into his inner circle. He had an uncanny ability to forgive and even trust people who did hold him in the highest of regard and who oftentimes treated him with contempt. He does not seem to have been swayed by the poisonous motivations of pride, vengeance, or anger, but greeted all people with warmth and humor.
    This is not to say he was a push-over. Lincoln was a fierce debater, and quite eloquent with his ability to reason and communicate strategic, powerful, and truthful arguments, but it did not seem to affect his demeanor toward other people (even his "enemies"). Frederick Douglas once said Lincoln was the only man who truly made him feel as if the color of his skin did not matter.
     Lincoln was quite a paradox.
     One the one hand, he manifested fruit of the Spirit that is supposed to live inside of every believer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (and which so often does not). But on the other hand, he seems to have rejected the central tenet of the faith -- the Resurrection of the Dead and the promise of eternal life.
     How can this be?
     It is, of course, not my place to judge the man, but I cannot help but observe the disconnect. And yet, he exhibited in his life spiritual fruit that is so often hard to find in the world today, even in my own life.