And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

And There Was Light:
Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
 
“Successive generations have variously depicted Lincoln as a secular saint, the savior of the Union, and the Great Emancipator; as a grasping tyrant; or as a calculating political creature imprisoned by public opinion and white prejudice. The truth is more complicated.”
-Jon Meacham

I love biographies, but I hate authorized biographies. Authorized biographies depict a person as they would like to be depicted – not as they truly are. Social media and the internet already depict people as they would like to be depicted. We don’t need biographies for that. When I read a biography, I look for nuance. I look for a complicated or even confusing depiction of a person – because people are complicated and confusing.
 
Jon Meacham has done a stellar job of writing a complicated, and at times confusing, biography of Abraham Lincoln. Was Lincoln a national hero? A political creature? A man of modern racial sentiments? A racist? Meacham’s work suggests that at times, he was all of these things and more.
 
Lincoln was complicated – just like you and I are. Yet God undoubtedly used Lincoln to alter the course of history. God has a funny habit of using complicated people to do amazing things in this world. And that’s good news – because that means he can use you and me.
 
For these reasons and many others, I encourage you to pick up Meacham’s work. It’s full of wisdom and insight into human nature and God’s working in this world.
 
Your Pastor and Friend,
John Knox Foster