Hero Worship

Who are your heroes? On Sunday New Orleans crowned a whole new set, once the Super Bowl ended in Miami. Last night goal tender Evgeni Nabokov stopped more than fifty of the Red Wings shots leading his team to a victory on the ice; a lot of St. Louis hockey fans would call him a hero. Maybe you look up to the likes of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Perhaps Brad Pitt or Danny Glover or one of the other Hollywood stand-outs who waltz across the media stages makes your hero list.

I will tell you who my heroes are. Young men like my son (who might be shocked to read this) who served in the military, left home and country to help prepare for the Gulf War and got no headlines or medals, but made a difference anyway. Or his soccer teammate from high school, Bronze Star recipient U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Harvey Wagenmaker who is making a career out of protecting my freedom. These two like tens of thousands of men and women bring a lump to my throat, and the pride I feel for them dampens my eyes. These are my heroes.

Or I could mention a couple men I have recently met at Baker College, young men who are making valiant efforts to overcome the odds of a societal deck that is stacked against them from birth. Yes, they are black men, and yes, society still places higher hurdles before them than it did me. But these guys are fighting to hang onto a dream that they can do better, be better than their past, achieve something many of their peers have given up hoping for. These are my heroes.

How about these? Katie Davis and Amanda Lehman are two beautiful, intelligent twenty-somethings who took Jesus' call to "the least of these" very seriously. They left behind the dating scene, the mall and the mini van to follow in the footsteps of Amy Carmichael and Mother Teresa. Katie just posted a message from Uganda that makes me feel ashamed of my own puny self. Grab a cup of coffee and a box of Kleenex and read her blog if you dare. These are my heroes.

Ultimately, our heroes are determined by our values. What do you value? Is there something here on earth that holds real worth to you, or do you not look not to the things of this world? Some people think it is not practical to focus on other worldly goals. In The Jesus I Never Knew Philip Yancey says, "The kingdom of heaven... represents value far more real and permanent than anything the world has to offer." These values, he goes on to say, "are every bit as pragmatic as General Norman Swarzkopf." The General, another of my heroes, is as practical as they come. Yancey's point is that heavenly values are the only values that matter in the end. (Hence the title of my blog, in case you were wondering.)

It is not enough, I am beginning to believe, to have the best intentions. There is, after all, that old saying about those becoming paving stones on the road to a place where "global warming" takes on a whole new meaning. The best intentions are destroyed by a bad attitude, and attitude, as Chuck Swindoll says, is what determines your altitude. Why not soar above the crowd from how on? Take your cue from Katie or Harvey or someone you know who embodies the true attitude of the Gospel, the spirit of the Cross. There is, after all, an uber hero whom we are all called to worship, the One who died so we can call Heaven home. I believe people like these would be His heroes.