We are in his living room for goodness sake!

Last weekend, while on a trip to visit our son in college, we visited Thomas Jefferson’s stately home, Monticello. It is one of those places that makes you feel like you stepped back in time. As you walk through the house listening to the tour guide, looking at Jefferson’s ancient books, walking over the intricate wood floors,and touring his gardens, you get the feeling that Mr. Jefferson has just stepped out for a stroll and is about to walk back in the door.

As we stood in the room where our 3rd President did much of his writing, the guide made a statement that caught me by surprise. She said, “Mr. Thomas Jefferson, the founding father, the author of the Declaration of Independence, actually owned over 600 slaves during his lifetime.”

My shocked reaction wasn’t because this was new information to me, as I knew this fact already. It was just that the statement was made especially poignant by the fact that we were standing in this man’s own office. I wondered if Thomas Jefferson could have imagined that nearly 200 years after his death, that forty people would stand in his office and be reminded of a fact that to this day leaves a lingering shadow of hypocrisy over his life. You see in 1776 this man wrote what many would call American Scripture, when he penned the opening words of the Declaration of Independence, words that declare that, “all men are created equal.”

We expect our leaders to embody the words that they speak and the truths that they passionately present. That’s why a huge question mark abides over Jefferson’s life. His actions beg the question, “Did he really believe what he wrote or were these just words on a page to him?”

There is a great lesson to be learned here. We will be remembered long after we are gone not only for the words that we speak, but for the life we lived, the choices that we made, and the compassion or lack thereof that we brought to the world. As leaders we can never forget that we must embody the message that we champion.