Heroes

I had to look up that word at Dictionary.com to make sure it's spelled right. I wasn't sure about the e in the plural, and I didn't want to go all Dan Quayle.

The move The Hunger Games is opening the weekend and my wife and a couple of my children are bent on seeing it. I think I will like it too. The reason I think this is because it's about a hero (heroine in this case if you don't consider that a chauvinistic term), and everybody likes a hero. Songs have been written, stories have been told, and movies have been made about heroes since the beginning of human communication.

We want a hero that we can look up to. We want to be a hero that others can admire. The real-life heroes that are offered up to us leave us wanting more. Politicians, athletes, singers, and actors all fall short of our expectations of a hero.

If you want to find a real hero who you can aspire to be, look in the books of the Bible. Start with Hebrews chapter 11, which tells about a stutterer* who led a nation to freedom, a murdering adulterer who had a heart like God's, a womanizer who defended God's people, a prostitute who helped God's spies, a liar who received God's promise that he would be the father of a huge nation.

Of course, the real hero is found in the four books about Jesus' life. Learn to love like he loved. Learn to care like he cared. Learn to pray like he prayed. Learn to speak like he spoke. But most of all, learn to live by God's agenda, not your own. That's the stuff of which real heroes are made.