When I was 15, I was asked to be the youth representative on our church council.

I was as idealistic as any 15-year-old could be…pumped up on impending maturity and the need for my spirituality to be intense and kind of self-righteous.

Now that I think about it, it really was kind of self-righteously intense.

I was intense and self-righteous like only a 15-year-old could be.

I think I thought that I had come pretty close to figuring it all out.

I suppose that I expected the adults on the church council to be a more mature version of myself.

I expected them to be the most spirituality intense beings I had ever come into contact with.

It was one of the more eye opening experiences I’d had up to that point to realize that the church was as much a business as it was a vessel for spiritual renewal.

I didn’t even consider that the church would have to be a business, too.  I was still living at home.  My parents were paying my bills, buying my clothes…feeding me.

Why should I consider what anything cost?

Now, I’m a little older and I experience straddling the line between spirituality and physical need everyday.  It’s not a shock…it’s just something that people who are realistic about things recognize as being a necessity.

We’re right here…better get the “distractions” taken care of…take care of the needs we can when we see them.

The news machine ran this picture the other day.

This new Pope, this man…this “elected official”…this chosen one…goodness gracious, he makes me cry.

He’s the real deal.

I’ve gotten the impression with some of our leaders that we couldn’t trust their public image.

They present themselves to the world as something wonderful and heroic, but in private could be something else completely.

I guess that’s kind of cynical.

Maybe it’s just a mature worldview…head everything off at the pass with skepticism before I’m disappointed again.

With this new Pope, there’s something other than just being a figurehead for the Catholic church going on.

He’s an emissary for more than just the earthly institution known as the Catholic Church.

You don’t have to dig deep to see that he loves God…and loves God’s children.

I get the feeling that if this Pope went “rogue” and headed out into the countryside in his new “old Renault” that he’d be doing this same kind of thing, whether the cameras were rolling or there were any crowds gathered to watch his kindness.

It is so amazing to see this kind of expression of Faith.

Billy Graham gave his “final sermon” this past Thursday.

He’s 95 years old now and the media is presenting this as what they are expecting may be his last televised message.

You can watch his message here.

He’s another “real deal”.

95 years of consistency…that’s a legacy.

He’s been a great “Man of God” for a lot of years.

When people can “take care of business” and still present God in an accessible way…share something with the world that represents God like these men do…that is so inspiring and worthy of respect.

These two men of God are “real deals”…cameras or no cameras, they represent.

God bless them.

God bless us all.