Whose shoes do you want to fill?

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 1 Corinthians 1: 10-13

A couple days ago I commented on the tendency of people to put their hope in other people. Though the context was political for that post, the same tendency is relevant to the Church. Because of the effects of the Fall, humanity is, in the fictional but appropriate words of Elrond, "weak...scattered, divided, leaderless." We instinctively, subconsciously realize this, and are always on the lookout for those who "have it together." The dangers of this are more obvious in the political realm, but are no less so in any aspect of life. The desire to subordinate ourselves to one who is wise and just is borne out of the imprint of our Creator, who intended that to be a desire by us for Him. Since humanity rejected Him, we look to fill that need in other ways, and as the song says, go "looking for love in all the wrong places."

So, to the idea of not putting your trust in men like Barry Goldwater or Al Gore, we should add not to put it in Rick Warren, Max Lucado, C. S. Lewis, the former Cardinal Ratzinger or even the Apostle Paul. To the extent these men -- or anyone else, famous or not -- follow the example of Christ, they are worthy of admiration and support. But they, too, need a savior and a leader, so to expect them to fulfill that role for any of us is asking too much of them.