Tell me about your heroes

We all need heroes, we just need to be very careful who we select as our heroes.  From the time we are toddlers we begin to identify people we admire, love and respect as our heroes.  Our heroes embody those things we value most, tend to shape our character and motivate us to action.  That is why the selection of heroes is so important. 

Heroes refine our values

We generally select heroes that are in some way consistent with our values.  Rarely will someone choose to admire someone we find to be repugnant and despicable.  In the beginning, even if we don’t like everything about the person, there will be some thing or things that we appreciate.  But heroes refine our values.  Suppose you like a coach’s commitment to winning and developing excellence in his players.  This coach may hold a position on an unrelated subject with which you disagree.  But follow that coach long enough and before long you might begin to tolerate and perhaps even adopt his perspective.  I once knew a man who was deeply committed to tea-totalism; he was also a passionate fan of a specific sports team.  When his team hired a coach with a history of recreational alcohol use and even a DUI this man was willing to “look beyond his drinking” if he could coach the team well.  Those people who are our heroes refine our values.  

Heroes excite our imagination

Our heroes also excite our imagination.  What we see our hero do we want to do and we even imagine doing that ourselves.  It doesn’t matter if our hero is a sports star, a political icon, a military figure or our dad. We see what they do and in some way we want to do that as well.  One of my heroes is C. S. Lewis.  He once wrote about how he loved a cup of hot tea by the fire with a good book and/or conversation.  My office has a fireplace and memorabilia from Lewis’ books that decorate the walls. I have English Breakfast tea in the cupboard and when the weather is cool enough I sit in a rocking chair by the fire to read and sip tea. I wonder, “What would Lewis say to this or that?”  

Heroes ignite our action.

What do you do for a living?  Reflect for a moment about the choice you made in your career.  Was there someone you admired, loved or respected that did that or recommended that vocation?  Have you noticed that careers tend to run in families?  I was talking to a doctor friend of mine recently about how he got into medicine.  While they each had different specialities most of the men in his extended family were doctors of some sort or another.  It seemed to have begun with one of his progenitors who at the turn of the last century was the doctor, dentist and, if need be, vet for a small rural community.  

The Church Needs Heroes

The church needs heroes or, perhaps, I should say the church needs better heroes.  Over the last generation or so our heroes have not served us very well.  We make heroes of our mega church pastors, music stars, religion iconoclasts and growth gurus.  Sadly, the church has lived down to those heroes.  They have at best reflected our culture and its values and at worst been as Paul puts it, “But evil men and impostors, will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”  

Let me suggest a better class of heroes.  June 29th is the day we remember the greatest band of heroes, Christian Martyrs.  The Sunday before, many churches will stop and reflect on the lives and faith of those for whom Jesus’ invitation to come and die were physically lived out.  Christ doesn’t call all His disciples to become martyrs.  However, we are all to take up our cross daily and follow Him.  When we have martyrs for heroes we refine our values, excite our imagination and are moved to action.