Heroes

 

These are the names of David’s mighty warriors: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter. (II Samuel 23:8)

                Who are your heroes? This question comes to mind because of recent and not-so-recent events. When I was growing up, my heroes included Batman, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Tarzan, Zorro, Steve Austin, Sherlock Holmes, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. I went through a Marvel phase, with Wolverine at the top of the list. Later, Dr. Who, Robert McCall, Percival Blakeney, and Aragorn spent some time on my list. The thing you’ll most note from this list is that none of them exist.

In my last job, people were proclaimed to be heroes and superheroes because they successfully solicited credit applications or convinced people to give them perfect scores on surveys. Not surprisingly, I hated the gross misuse of the term. But it led me to an important question: What makes a hero a hero? Among the elements of my answer to that question are that a hero must risk something. It might not have to be death, but it’s greater than being told one isn’t interested in applying for a credit card. A second is that the reason for the risk must be for something that is both worthy and larger than oneself.

Somewhere along the line, I found a second set of heroes, beginning, of course, with Jesus Christ. Add to him, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, David, Elisha, Elijah, Peter, Paul, and John. Moving forward through history, the number increases, eventually including people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington Carver, and more recently still C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Dallas Willard.

Clearly, Christianity became one of my keys to heroic status (but not the only.) With some of the more recent heroes, the need to have risked one’s life seems to have been replaced by the need to have thought deeply.  And the cause may not be larger than oneself, but it is at least other than oneself.  As I look at pictures of the Cajun Navy, and of women who refused to raise a fist to express solidarity with bullies, I find myself less sure of exactly what a hero is, but like so many other people, “I know one when I see one.”

Who are your heroes?