We all need heroes in our lives

We all need heroes in our lives
                        

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” — Christopher Reeve.

Do we have heroes in our lives? If so, who are our heroes? Who do we look up to as an influence to mold or lives after, or better yet to give us inspiration when the world seems so dark and empty? People we don’t worship, but people with some unique quality in their life we wish we could cultivate?

Of course, Jesus is a great hero to all, but I feel like grouping him with other people we call heroes isn’t fair to him because Jesus is Lord and no one is even close to where Jesus is. I am going to share three heroes of mine and tell why I pick them as heroes. The reason for two of them is going be obvious, but the third will be odd to many.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favorite men in history. He was a man among men. He boxed while he was president, loved the outdoors, was a cowboy out in the west, wrote 30 books and read one book a day, some in other languages. He is the reason we can rest assured when we buy food or medicine that it is safe to consume. He realized natural wonders like the Grand Canyon needed to be protected. He saved hundreds of millions of acres so future generations can enjoy them. He was against putting “in God we trust” on our money. However, not because he had a problem with the saying, but he thought it was disrespectful to God to have his name on something as common as money.

Abraham Lincoln was the original rags to riches story in the mid-1800s. Lincoln went to school only 300 days, but he read like crazy, even earning a law license. He battled depression all of his life, even while president. There were times he didn’t carry a pen knife because he was afraid he would slit his wrists. Today he would probably be in a hospital because he was so depressed. Yet he was the right man to lead us through the Civil War and free the slaves.

As a young man who battled depression, I learned the sky is the limit. With help from God I can do anything. When Lincoln died, there was a newspaper clipping on him that said, “Abraham Lincoln is the greatest statesman of all time.”

It was always a beautiful day in Fred Rogers’ neighborhood. I don’t remember if I ever watched “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” as a child, but I recently saw a video about how loving and gentle he was. I was amazed by him, and I remember at the church we attended when I was a boy, the pastor was in a class Rogers taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. I watched the biography about his life, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” and the movie, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

He truly cared about other people. In fact, people found it hard to interview him because he always cared about how they were doing more than he cared about being interviewed. You may have heard he was in the military and wore sweaters to cover up his arms because he had tattoos all over both arms, one for every person he killed as a sniper. It’s not true. He didn’t believe in going to war, and he wore sweaters on his show to make the children feel at home.

Heroes help us to see the best about our human family. They bring out the best in us. Now it is our turn to be the hero. Believe it or not, people are watching us, yes even you. We are speaking into people’s lives every day. We can either speak death or life in people’s lives. We can choose to hate or love, hold on to hurts or forgive.

Whatever we do, somebody is watching. If we are real and caring with people, that is a true hero.


Loading next article...

End of content

No more pages to load