Obama's Paid the Price

There is a price to be payed for greatness, a tremendous cost for change. Obama's courage and fortitude demonstrated strength under fire and challenged the masses to believe in chance. We heard him, were touched, moved, believed. Amazingly, the Unthinkable happened - and he is the President Elect. That accomplishment inspired the world, changed a nation and sealed our souls. What is the price to be paid and who carries the spiritual burden of such a tremendous inspiration? Unfortunately, the burden of greatness is high, the cost of having a calling can be painful. And it is a price Barack and Michelle have decided to carry on behalf of us all.

What makes Obama magnetic? The obvious humility. The pure belief in bettering the people, in healing a nation. A person who possesses that type of desire for the common good is NOT the same personality type who fancies himself president. The ambition and drive to become President is better suited for an arrogant type, for a person who has been groomed for the title, for the status of American royalty. Barack was not groomed by the establishment.

Additionally, it is obvious that the Obamas love each other, enjoy each other, are invested in the idea of family and unity. Running for this office put Barack on the road for close to two years. That is month after month after month of traveling the country, touching base with his family only by phone, seeing his wife intermittently. That means trying to keep a family together despite never ending criticism, never ending scrutiny, never ending ridicule and never ending hate. This was exactly opposite of where he and Michelle would ideally want to be. Now, as the President, their remnant of privacy will disappear, the safety of their precious family is more at stack.

And being President is less financially rewarding than the life he and Michelle could have led without this Presidential "stuff." Between the book deals, being Senator, and Michelle's "Claire Huxtableness," the Obama's were alright. They could have been comfortable millionaires, sending their kids to private school, living the privileged life, cutting a check at Thanksgiving and Christmas, paying face time to community service. It was theirs to claim. And they put it all aside in an effort to make a change.

They believed in change.

And their belief changed a group, which changed a town, which changed a city, which changed a state, which changed a country, which changed the world.

They changed the world.

And they made the sacrifice. They gave it all up to do what was right, step into the calling that was supernaturally prepared for them. They sacrificed. They paid the price. And they will continue to pay the price, as the stress of the office presses upon them and their family.

We have to remember, in all of our celebrating, to hold them up in prayer, to offer up our support, to contribute in any. We owe it to them to meet their challenge, to think a little less about self and a little more about uplifting the community. We owe it to them, for the joy they gave us, for the spiritual salve they placed over our generational wounds, for the future light they sparked in our children, to help in anyway possible.
We owe it to them to make their sacrifice worth it.