From the first chapter of Richard L. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline:
“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”
~ Richard L. Foster
Deep people?
Who are they?
What do they do differently?
Deep people move beyond the comfort zone of surface living to explore the scary, uncomfortable nooks and crannies of their inner life, their relationships, and our increasingly interdependent world. They aren’t happy with the status quo, with only knowing what they’ve always known, being who they’ve always been.
Few politicians are deep people, for example. They have to talk in sound bytes, so I suspect most of them now think in sound bytes, too: shallow interpretations of issues and events, simplistic pseudo-solutions to complex problems. Complexity and nuance don’t win votes.
Foster’s book is intended as a roadmap for those of us who want to be deep people. I think I’m going to enjoy it.
