Heroes

Faster than an speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! There’s something about hero blockbusters in the summertime. We can’t get enough of them. Saving the world and rescuing the weak resonates with us. But what does it look like to be a hero in real life? Maybe we need a new definition of what it means to be a hero.

A hero saves the day. If you believe Hollywood, a hero saves the planet. That makes heroism seem inaccessible to most of us. But with a single question, Jesus made hero status available to us all. He also took away our excuses for not accessing our heroic potential.

“Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It’s Superman!” A hero sees what everyone sees, but is not content to do what everyone does. A hero saves the day. Even though that may sound lofty and unattainable, hero status is accessible to all of us. But just like Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite, there’s a common weakness we must overcome if we’re going to be heroes.

A hero sees what everyone sees, but is not content to do what everyone does. A hero doesn’t let his or her fear stand in the way of saving the day. One of the things we most admire about heroes is their willingness to sacrifice on behalf of others. But that’s also one of the biggest things that gets in the way of us seizing opportunities to be heroes.

A hero sees what everyone sees, but is not content to do what everyone does. Nobody ever feels like a hero. But what separates heroes from the rest of us is choice. Heroes don’t accept the status quo. Heroes take action . . . even when the problem is too big for one person to solve. Heroes leverage what they have and who they are on behalf of other people.