"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

Richard Foster
(Celebration of Discipline, 1978)

I've been thinking a lot about this quote lately. I want to be a deep leader. Shoot, I just want to be a deep Jesus follower. Lately, though, I feel more empty than anything. Is there depth to emptiness? What's truly going on in these seasons of life? Perhaps it's a depth of relationship with Jesus that actually helps us survive the valleys that will, inevitably, arrive. I'd rather that than to say that it's a lack of depth that brings them on. Believe me, sometimes that's how it feels but somehow that seems like a false picture. Like a lie from the deceiver meant to kick a girl when she's down. He's like that, you know. Regardless, I choose depth.

I think of the disciplines I've been taught through my life, particularly the spiritual disciplines and wonder, how do we foster depth? What things are y'all doing to foster depth in your relationships with others and with Jesus?

For those of you that are church leaders, how do you help those you lead in their pursuit of depth? It's easy to look at people and see their strengths, weaknesses and potential for "success." We market people's abilities. More important, to me, is heart. So how do we encourage heart? How do we show people that there's so much more and encourage them to want it? How do we, together, strive for and lead for depth?

It seems that today is more about questions than about answers.