Call me a societal party-pooper, but Ned Flanders as the poster guy for Christianity leaves me a little unsettled. After all, isn’t he the perpetual target for Homer’s insults and the constant object of Springfield’s ridicule? Ned, with his perfect marriage, perfect children, and perfect, happy, 30-minute endings, is certainly not the spitting image of my spiritual life. Ned’s the figment of someone’s imagination; he’s just not realistic. After all, even Christians struggle, get angry, and make mistakes. Why not Ned?

Yet the words are not dry on the paper before the thought occurs to me that I know a real-life Ned Flanders.

Meet Ron Yahr. The bushy brown mustache, glasses, and rather uneventful wardrobe bear a striking resemblance to the cartoon Ned. When you meet Ron’s two boys (read: Rod and Todd Flanders) the similarity is downright eerie. Although Ron’s doorbell doesn’t chime "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" and his car horn does not trumpet the Hallelujah chorus, he does share Ned’s infectious enthusiasm for God and Jesus. Ron attends church at least twice a week, teaches Sunday school, serves as a deacon, and regularly listens to the local Christian radio station.

Born and raised in Michigan, Ron is the product of a true Christian home. Together with his mother, father, two older brothers, and younger sister, Ron attended church at least once a week and gradually grew into his spirituality. After high school, Ron decided to attend a small Bible college where he paid his way working as a dishwasher in the school cafeteria. "The Lord was good enough to provide a means, so I was happy to provide the way," he recalls fondly. While in college, Ron flirted with the ideas of being a missionary and a youth pastor. A weeklong trip to Mexico quickly solved that dilemma. "Mexico just didn’t agree with me. And I don’t mean the water," he laughs. The opportunity to work with a local youth group opened up his senior year and Ron fell in love. "I got up everyday and loved what I did. I was the happiest when I was with those kids and I knew I was following the Lord’s will."

Shortly after graduation, Ron and his brother went to Florida to visit old family friends. Upon arriving at their home, Ron found a lovely young woman where a young childhood friend once stood. For six month, Ron and Becky wrote letters back and forth until he came down in April to marry her. He had fallen in love again, only this time it was that giddy, seventh-heaven kind of love that would send him flying/SOARING. "I thank God everyday for my wonderful wife,’ he’ll say at every opportunity. "She’s smart and beautiful and I love her."

Today, Ron owns a pool maintenance company and works while Becky homeschools the boys. Just as Ned does not allow his kids to play games with dice in an effort to protect them from worldly influences, Ron does not subscribe to cable television. Both attend church at least twice a week, tithe regularly, teach Sunday school and engage in various sideline businesses (Ned sells religious hooked rugs over the internet and Ron sells wooden pens with golden crosses on them). Ned’s trademark "Okily dokily" is equivalent to Ron’s characteristic "God bless!" and an innocent charm exudes from both men whose simple faith guides every decision no matter how small or large.

That’s not to say that Ron is one-dimensional. And for that matter, neither is Ned Flanders.

Since December 1999, Ron has lost his father, watched his mother degenerate from a liver disease, suffered from sciatica of his back, and dealt with financial difficulties. "Sometimes it’s hard to understand why God is putting me through all this. I sometimes don’t know how much more I can take." Ron admits to struggling with questions and answers about the God he loves so much. There have been times in his life when his simple faith doesn’t seem to be enough. "But ultimately it is. It has to be."

Although not all comparable, Ned has also been dealt "tests of faith". In one episode, Ned was pulled over for speeding By Police Chief Wiggum, who challenged, "Where is your Messiah now"? It was this very question that Ned faced at the end of the 1999 season when his wife, Maude, was killed in a freak accident.

The final grade for these men, taking the hardest tests life can manage to spring, is a definitive A-plus. After being broken by despair, worry, and hardship, they exhibit the Christlike qualities of perseverance and spiritual understanding. For instance, the Sunday morning after Maude’s death, Ned vows to never attend church again. Five minutes later, he is racing to church muttering prayers of forgiveness for his lapse in faithfulness. Similarly, Ron never stopped believing that God was ultimately in control. "I know that God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I have faith that He will provide in every instance and no matter how much I question, that faith never stops."

Perhaps this is why people like Ned, and Ron, are so often misunderstood by Christian and non-Christians alike. Non-Christians are skeptical to believe that the promise of hope in Jesus Christ is too good to be true. Christians who struggle daily to live in God’s will refuse to believe that it can be that simple. But Ned and Ron prove that it is both true and simple.

The book of Hebrews defines faith as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Our natural tendency to do the exact opposite of that command is what makes it so hard to appreciate people like Ned and Ron. They have the faith of the mustard seed that moves mountains. As Christians, we are never expected to reach perfection but to strive to be more Christlike. Some people are just better at it than others. It doesn’t mean God loves us any less. And I guarantee that Ned and Ron would be the first in line to convince you of that very truth.