Depth or Width?

In church, Pastor Dan made reference to Corrie Ten Boom, one of my personal heroes. One of the first things that came to my mind was the fact that she forgave and helped her former prison guards and those who treated her and her family ill. Her depth of faith makes me want to have the same depth. I started to think "If I had half the faith and forgiveness she had. . ." but I stopped. Everyone has people they look up to and want to be like. We all want to emulate someone and there are people out there who feel the same way about me/you. So mathematically speaking, if I only aspire to posses half the character and spiritual deep as someone, what about those who want to be like me? They would only end up with a quarter of that original depth of character and spirituality. And what about those who would look up to them. In the end we lose that depth. Depth of character become shallowness; spiritual maturity becomes hypocrisy and luke-warm faith that doesn't stand against the slightest temptation. Paul said it best when he wrote "follow me as I follow Christ." He says to emulate Christ not him. He knew his own failures and he knew that only by following and being like Christ would there be any depth in their lives and spiritual growth. In a world full of shallow people, we need to strive for depth; not width in our faith.


PS One of the things I like about Corrie Ten Boom was that she too fully acknowledged her weaknesses and even wrote them in her book. She shows that it took many trials and struggles to get to the point of trusting God enough to forgive and heal. Just like Paul showed and wrote about his weaknesses and trials.