My wife and I were discussing the state of affairs in America. I said every child of the 1960s knew there was a credibility gap when he said he didn't inhale. I said every golfer knew character would be a continuing issue after correspondents for several golf magazines caught him cheating during a round with two of his predecessors. I said everybody knows he cheated on his wife for years and lied to family, friends, colleagues, and employees. I said he admitted to an inappropriate -- s-e-x-u-a-l -- relationship with an intern just a little bit older than his daughter.

My wife said she thought she knew who I was talking about but my description fits a large percentage of America's male population. Maybe that's why he remains so popular. He's just like us. When America looks in the mirror, it sees him. My wife also said it's hard to throw stones when you live in a glass house.

I think she was saying that if we went after him, it wouldn't be long before they come after us. As she spoke, I thought I heard a voice, "What's that I see in your eye?" Whenever we try to make our heroes into something a little more than human, we get into trouble. They're just not up to it.

Just look at the rap sheets of our heroes. Adam and Eve had bad diets. Moses was a murderer. Samson fell for Delilah. See! David just had to have Bathsheba. See again! Thomas Jefferson could really write about life and liberty while enslaving people. Babe Ruth struck out a lot and not just on the diamond. Mickey Mantle was a drunk. Mike Tyson bit off more than he could chew. Cross-waving Evander Holyfield has six children by six different women. Tiger Woods can't win every week. We could go on and on and on. It's just like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Every hero becomes at last a bore."

I prefer to say every hero becomes at last just human. I'm not making excuses for you know who. God forbid any of us embrace the kind of ethical amnesia that prompted Kentucky Senator Augustus Owsley Stanley to say back in the 1920s: "If Governor Fields is right, I am going to stand by him because he is right. If he is wrong, I am going to stand by him because he is a Democrat." God forbid any of us mimic those mindless drones known as straight-ticket Democrats and Republicans who would vote for Satan if he were their party's nominee. I'm just asking us to remember our faith includes the opportunity for redemption after confession and repentance.

Unfortunately, we've got this beastial habit in America of building up our human heroes and then tearing them apart because they're human. Fortunately, God is a lot more gracious. I like the way the incarnate God Jesus put it, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." So if you're looking for a hero, I'd turn to God as expressed in Jesus. He's divine enough to deal with our humanity. He is the friend on whom we can rely in all things. Ralph Earle, the great biblical scholar who taught at Kansas City's Nazarene Theological Seminary and helped edit The New International Version of the Bible, often told the story of John G. Paton who was a pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides. Dr. Paton soon discovered that while the natives had words for house, tree, stone, and the like, they had no words for love, joy, and peace. Worst of all, they had no word for believe. One day as he sat in his hut filled with frustration, an old native entered and slumped down in a chair. Exhausted from a long journey, the man said, "I'm leaning my whole weight on this chair." "What did you say?" asked Dr. Paton. The man repeated, "I'm leaning my whole weight on this chair." Immediately, Dr. Paton cried, "That's it!" And from that day forward for that primitive tribe, "Believe in Jesus" became "Lean your whole weight on Jesus."

When Larry King asked Chuck Colson how he managed to avoid the troubles of so many church leaders, he said: "I tell people, 'Don't follow me! Follow Jesus!' "

Whether it's a parent, professor, pastor, president, or anybody else, human heroes always end up a little too human. They always end up disappointing our larger than life expectations. Aside from breaking the commandment about having only one God (see Exodus 20:3), human heroes just aren't up to divine prerogatives. That's why Paul so mockingly addressed the people in the middle of the Areopagus (see Acts 17:16ff NIV): "Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I found an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown god.' "

Or as the Psalmist simply prescribed, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes" (see Psalm 118 NIV).

Today, we might say, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in professors, pastors, presidents, or anyone else who is less than divine." Get it? Only Jesus is divine. He alone is worthy of absolute trust. As Hebrews 12:2 urges, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus!" We need to aim higher than humanity for our heroes. Golfers know the importance of focus -- decisively picking a target and going for it. Harvey Penick was famous for saying, "Take dead aim!" He wrote:

Instead of worrying about making a fool of yourself in front of a crowd of 4 or 40,000, forget about how your swing may look and concentrate instead on where you want the ball to go. Pretty is as pretty does ... Take dead aim at a spot on the fairway or the green, refuse to allow any negative thought to enter your head, and swing away. A high handicapper will be surprised at how often the mind will make the muscles hit the ball to the target, even with a far less than perfect swing ... Indecision is a killer ... That's what I mean by taking dead aim. I mean clearing the mind of all thoughts except the thoughts of the target, so that the muscles are free to do the job.

Christians take dead aim at Jesus. Christians focus on Jesus as the perfect pattern for faith and life. Christians approach every decision of life with two questions: What would Jesus say about it? What would Jesus do about it? Or as Jerry Kirk described the mission of the church for me many years ago, "We are called to be and do everything God calls us to be and do as exemplified in Jesus and explained in the Bible." The golfer's goal is simple: "Keep on hitting it straight until the wee ball goes into the hole" (James Braid). The Christian's goal is simple: "Be like Jesus!"

That's what Christian means -- a representation of Jesus or a little Christ.

Christians want to grow up to be just like Jesus. In other words, Christians have a better model than any professor, pastor, president, and so on. Dr. Bob Rotella, Director of Sports Psychology at the University of Virginia and consultant to many of golf's greatest players, explained the efficacy of goal-setting (Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, 1995):

A person with great dreams can achieve great things. A person with small dreams, or a person without the confidence to pursue his or her dreams, has consigned himself or herself to a life of frustration and mediocrity.

The sage of Proverbs put it this way, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18, paraphrase). Before the Reverend Ilona J. Buzick would accept a call to be associate pastor of Kansas City, Missouri's Second Presbyterian Church, she asked me: "Does the church want to grow? Does the church want to get better? Does it want to do great things for the Lord? Because if it doesn't, then I'm not called to it. I believe God has called me to be in life and ministry with people who want to be obedient to God's call to get better."

Unless God is dead, churches and their people can get better. They can grow. They can do more for God in mission, evangelism, educational opportunities, and all the rest. There's always room for growth unless, of course, God or we are dead. I think of these lines which I came across not too long ago: "Everything that can be invented already has been." This statement was released in 1899 by the U.S. Patent Office. If these "experts" ran the world we would still be sitting in the dark. It is our responsibility to shatter outdated thinking and explore the realm of the untested; it is here that breakthrough opportunities are waiting to be discovered.

Can you imagine what our country or church would look like today if our predecessors said, "Well, that's enough! No need to get better!"? Can you imagine what our country or church will look like if we say, "Well, that's enough! No need to get better!"? Here are a few more challenging lines:

This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind ... let it be some-thing good.

What have we invented? What have we done? What are we leaving behind? Do we have high standards? Do we have goals? Are we taking dead aim at Jesus? There's an easy way to find out. I think of the woman who had an appendectomy. She asked her doctor, "Will the scar show when I'm at the beach?" The doctor answered, "That depends on you."

Martin Luther said, "Good works don't make a person good but a good person does good works." John Calvin said we show "the signs of our salvation." Jesus said, "Follow me!" Take dead aim! Focus! Be faithful!