Playing the Part

In the race for president, we often hear about someone who looks "presidential".  The idea is that voters have some preconceived notion of what a president should be like and until a candidate seems plausible, they don't have a chance.  When Al Gore ran for president, he got negative press for listening to an image consultant on how to seem presidential.  I guess that it's not very presidential to ask how to be presidential.  I think that all of the candidates have image consultants these days.  They just stay out of sight.

To one degree or another, we all play the expectation game.  We have rolls to fulfill.  It is easier if the rolls that we assume are close to our own personality, then meeting those expectations is really not much of a chore.  At that point, meeting expectations is just being yourself.  

Of course, some people try to lower expectations.  If the bar is low enough, it is easy to get over it.  And over it in an impressive way.

Which brings us to Christian expectations.  We expect a certain level of behavior among our fellow Christians.  We think that some actions are tied closely to the faith and every Christian aught to be doing so.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

So demonstrating godliness is not about shouting amen or thumping a Bible.  It is about showing love.  Now there is an expectation that we should all aspire to meet.