What is a hero? And can one truly be found anymore?
The truth is, most people now would like to tell you that everyone is a hero in some way. In fact, against the backdrop of all the revolutionary wars that that have been fought in recent centuries - particularly the American and French Revolutions - we have gotten to a point where to be considered a hero by no one is out of the ordinary.
The revolutionary spirit carries the hearts of the masses! All men are equal; all men are great. Our worth is in who we are at the core: humans with hearts, and souls, and voices that must be heard. To compare is to betray all who would seem inferior in light of such a comparison. It is to undermine the very foundation on which we treat others with respect.
Of course, some among the audience of this little paper will have seen the flaw already. No one can raise the standard if being better is worse. Superior, inferior; no one hates those words more than the free man who uses his freedom to bear the name of the former and the actions of the latter. In democracy’s eyes, better and worse do not exist, nor do superior and inferior, nor do right and wrong.
So society loves the idea that everyone can be a hero. And oh, we do love our heroes - so long as everyone understands that the man who drags a pregnant woman out of her burning home is no more a hero than the woman who makes strangers happy by smiling at them even when she’d like to cry. It’s all self-sacrifice, after all. And all are equal.
There is a reason heroes have gone extinct.
To be a hero is to be brave and self-sacrificial, but it is to be so to an extreme. It is to stand above the crowd, so high that in their eagerness to look at this man, they will themselves be inspired to climb higher. It is, in a word, to be superior. Not proud or arrogant, for that is where great men become less great; but unusually giving, or caring, or just. But to climb above normalcy now is not an invitation to others to join you, but a request to be cut down to the same size as everyone else.
In ancient times, the grounds for heroes to grow out of were fertile and nutritious. The actions were not easy, but the motivation was there. Heroes received great reward and glory, and often men who found themselves in the lowest of circumstances had need of the greatest of character and feats to escape death or other unpleasant fates. It was easy to tell who was a hero and who was not, and those who were had thoroughly earned the title. Yet how watered down we have become. In trying to give everyone courage, we have spread it thin and encouraged it to be wasted and discarded.
There is in this world, and particularly in this country, a need for men to stir themselves up to action. To shake off those shackles of equalness, give their minds to what is good and right, and expect better of mankind than mankind expects of itself. I do earnestly believe that to be a hero in this day and age would be as difficult, if not more, than it would have been in days past; firstly because when all men lead average lives, it is easier to settle for average than to climb unnecessary heights; and secondly because of the passionate, widespread, selfish jealousy of democracy.
But one thing I cannot deny, thought it might seem contrary to statements I have previously made: men never stop looking for heroes. Man is made to worship. Man is made to love beauty and holiness and truth and justice. And man is made to reflect these characteristics of the God in whose image we are created. Why does humanity love heroes? Why do we seek them hungrily and bask in their glow like lizards in the sun? Because they are little glimpses, here in a world of sin, of that perfect Being who alone can feed and warm us. How lost we all are, and how confused, that we turn our backs on God, and then seek Him where His fullness cannot be found.
Even heroes disappoint. They rise up, brave and selfless, and then they make mistakes, or they simply die. Not perfect or immortal are these better humans. But they make us look up expectantly, as though there were something more than ourselves.
A hero without Christ is a reminder that all men were equally created in God’s image, and that even good deeds cannot save. But a hero, saved and being sanctified, is a reminder of the right order of things; of how this world and the people in it ought to be.
Satan, as usual, takes a little truth and twists it. All men ought to be heroes, perfect and godly. We ought to be full of courage, faith, truth, and love. But it is a mistake to think that we ever can be except through Christ Jesus. Who man is, and who he ought to be, can never be separated from who God is.
What a hero is:
Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the LORD is with him.” 1 Samuel 16:18
What a hero does:
“Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight.” 2 Samuel 10:12
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