Heroes – May 25, 2003
We all look for heroes in our lives. They give us the strength to push through the mundane. We esteem them as though they were above the insecurities we feel, beyond the vulnerabilities we have to accept. In our youth, the hero may be a comic book character with no weaknesses or flaws. But in adulthood, the hero is someone like us—facing the same worries, the same human conflicts and challenges—yet possessing the determination to rise above them. Being human is being subject to the gravity of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. Being heroic is accepting those realities and having the courage to live anyway—to overcome, to contribute instead of withdraw, to make a difference rather than be indifferent. Being heroic means knowing what can be changed, what can be made better—and doing it. Being a hero is not letting circumstance determine attitude, but rather using attitude to change circumstance. In doing so, great things happen: a school is built; a neighbor turns into a friend; a child learns how to read; a teenager gets a second chance.
It is the heroes that lead out, bearing the banners of courage, giving us the faith we need to find and follow that hero inside each of us. And sometimes those who go first give up their lives in order to save us, to lift us from the ordinary to the extraordinary by reminding us of those principles worth sacrificing for. As Abraham Lincoln dedicated a portion of the battlefield during the Civil War, he spoke these words in his Gettysburg Address: “It is for us the living…to be dedicated…to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced, that we…highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
Let us not forget the heroes in our lives: the soldiers, the parents, the teachers, the friends and family who have gone before us, who gave their all for the cause of our freedom. Let us live our lives that their sacrifice also will not be in vain.
Program #3849