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Reading Lincoln's speeches and other writings for me is very close to reading the Bible. He never joined a specific church or congregation, but it is very clear to me that his faith was one of his pillars of strength as he endured the stresses of the civil war and all the momentous decisions he had to make, while dealing with the daily demands on him from office seekers and ordinary Americans who could actually come to the white house, and if they waited long enough could actually see and talk with their president, and petition him directly for whatever it was that they thought their president could do for them.

Whether it was a Ma or Pa begging their Commander in Chief to pardon a farmer's son for falling asleep at his post (a capital offense during the civil war), or asking for a small federal post master job in some rural dusty small town in the country, he was beset with individuals demands on his time during the Civil War, that to us in 2016 seems incomprehensible that ordinary Americans could access this great man.

Maybe some of our angst about this is jealousy. We are separated from the Great Emancipator, by a sea of time, 150 years of mythology and Thousands of Biographies, and the lack of motion picture back then when we could actually have heard his voice preserved for all time. He remains for us, a bigger than life figure, and it seems that we are cheated the briefest intimate experience with Abe Lincoln, that the lowliest of Americans back then had access to, if they were willing or capable of traveling to the white house and waiting in line to see the President.

The only America we have ever known, is a country that surrounds its current occupant of the white house with a ring of armed secret service agents, and a small army of handlers and screeners, where the average American has a lottery winner's chance of having a face to face meeting with their president. The very fact that Mr. Lincoln saw it as his duty to continue to receive ordinary Americans in the white house, even during the crisis of the Civil War, is for me one of those small and often overlooked details about his presidency that make him such a great President and a Man for All Ages.

I have often thought that when we die, we will be remembered more for the small acts of kindness that we do on a daily basis, whether or not that means stopping and helping a person change their tire when they have a flat, or helping a lady or a senior citizen load some groceries in their car, or whatever that good deed, daily done is, when you are going through life slowly enough to be able to recognize and see someone who could use a little but of your time or assistance. Abe Lincoln must have understood this to his core, for what else explains why he made so much of his day and his time in the white house, often until the evening hours, available to ordinary Americans, with the demands of the civil war swirling around him? These little details about how Lincoln spent his time in office and how he saw his duties to ordinary Americans are the kind of detail that makes him for me, the ultimate Leader as Servant with his Christ Like willingness to engage with the smallest person who needed his help.