Thomas Freiling - Walking with Lincoln: Spiritual Strength from Americas Favorite President

WALKING
with
LINCOLN

WALKING
with
LINCOLN

Spiritual Strength
from Americas Favorite President

THOMAS FREILING

2009 by Thomas Freiling

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Freiling, Tom.
Walking with Lincoln : spiritual strength from Americas favorite president
/ Thomas Freiling.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8007-1901-2 (cloth)
1. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865Religion. 2. Spiritual life. 3. Conduct of
life. I. Title.
E457.2.F788 2009
973.7092dc22
2008054242

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked AMP is taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked ESV is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked MESSAGE is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

M eet the soul of Abraham Lincoln.

The sixteenth president of the United States was a deeply spiritual man, and by exploring the divine principles that guided him, you can live a more fulfilling life. Are you searching for purpose? Are you overwhelmed with trials and tragedy? Do you find yourself in the midst of a great struggle? Come walk with Lincoln, and let him show you the way.

My walk with Lincoln was, in the beginning, a heart-rending journey. Many know that Lincoln lost many loves and that he was no stranger to grief. When he was a young boy, both his mother and a sister died. As a young man, he lost his fiance; later, as a father, he lost two sons. These losses stalked his melancholy spirit. Walt Whitman, who spent many hours with Lincoln during his presidency, said that he had a deep latent sadness in his expression.

I experienced a similar grief. On September 4, 2000, my wifethe mother of our two little boysslipped away from us. I adored Deanna. Tom, next to my Savior, youve always meant the most to me, she wrote to me in a letter shortly before dying. After a brave fight against cancer, she was gone.

Losing Deanna was a crushing blow. If youve experienced the thrill of falling in love and building a home together, you know that this can be a magical time. But our enchantment turned into dread. Deannas loss left a gaping void in our heartsand in our home. The absence of their mom was, of course, devastating to my sons. The house grew quiet, and the joys of home life abated. I felt rudderless.

Time passes slowly when you grieve. My long evenings turned into long nights. Id toss and turn, and pray. I prayed that my sons would experience joy once again.

I turned to books to lighten the load of my grief. One night I grabbed William Herndons classic 1889 biography, HerndonsLincoln: The True Story of a Great Life. This book by Lincolns former law partner was filled with interesting Lincoln lore. Having once worked for the United States Congress, I had particular interest in Lincolns days in the nations capital. It was a fascinating book and helped pass the time.

As I perused the pages of this old book, I stumbled across another conversation between Herndon and Lincoln, as reported by Ward Hill Lamon, Lincolns personal bodyguard. Lincoln was not prone to discussing his childhood, but in a rare transparent moment he told Herndon, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. It struck me that Lincoln looked at the death of his mother not as a hindrance but as a help. He treasured her memory and counted it not for loss, but for hope. I remember her prayers. They have always followed me, he said. They have clung to me all of my life. The loss didnt ruin young Abe! This broken little boy rose to greatness.

It might not seem like much, but I was comforted by this morsel of Lincolns story. It was a signpost on my way out of grief. Abraham Lincoln, a man of great sorrow who endured trials and tribulations through his entire life, mustered the strength to overcome his frailties and weaknesses. He was battered but not beaten. This was an example for me and my sons to live by. I dont know if my prayers caused me to read this story, but I thanked God for it.

This is how I began my walk with Lincoln. It gave me hope in my future; and, in Lincolns words, The power of hope upon human exertion is wonderful.

The more I learned about Lincoln, the more I marveled at the strength of his endurance. His lot in life was hard, even by eighteenth-century backwoods standards. But he seemed resilient beyond measure. He rose from disgrace to distinction. Yet no self-help books were available for him to read. Therapists and antidepressants didnt exist, and he couldnt lean on Oprah or Dr. Phil for help. The nearest church from his boyhood home was a half-days walk away. He was, literally, on his own.

Or was he?

What was his prescription for successful living? What guided Lincoln through the turmoil and ill-fated circumstances? Where did his inner strength come from?

Famed philosopher Reinhold Niebuhrauthor of the Serenity Prayerstudied the life of Lincoln and concluded that his religious convictions were superior in depth and purity to those, not only of political leaders of his day, but of religious leaders of the era.

Indeed, if you read much about Lincoln, you cant help but notice how prominent a role religion played in his life.

So I decided to become a student of Lincolns faith. I searched for books and articles about his religious convictions. Surprisingly, my initial efforts yielded nothing. Plenty of books have been written about Lincolns political prowess, his ideology, or his skills as commander in chief. But recent historians have all but ignored Lincolns faith. It seems that when contemporary scholars explore the inner Abraham Lincoln, they focus on his feelings, his psyche, or even his sexualitybut not his faith. This is a shame because even a cursory look at Lincolns life and words reveals that he was intensely spiritual.