Heroes

 

There is not a single person who aspires to mediocrity. 

Not one. 

Every person aspires to greatness. 

Think back to when you were younger. I'm talking about 5 or 6 years old. What did you want to be when you grew up? 

A firefighter. A teacher. A pro-football player. An astronaut. A movie star. The list goes on. For my little sister, the current career of choice is a policewoman. 

When we were little kids, regardless of how we wanted to do it, we all wanted to be the same thing. 

We all wanted to be great. We wanted to be the best. We wanted to be the ones who overcame adversity and became what we were meant to be, the ones who did something worthwhile.

We wanted to be heroes. 

There is a desire inside all of us to be more than we are. To be part of something bigger. To go against the tide and be extraordinary. 

And that only applies to our careers, right? To the things of the world. No way that could have anything to do with our faith...right? 

Wrong.


Dictionary.com defines a hero as "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities".

Most of the time this brings to mind knights in shining armor in a land far away, battling fire-breathing dragons. Nice, but not immediately applicable in our lives. Because of this we tend to write off the whole idea of heroism and say there's little room for it in the modern world.

But it's not true. The world needs heroes as much as it ever will. The Church needs heroes as much as it ever has.


Heroism is absolutely applicable to our faith; in fact, it's essential. What is more noble than Christ's cause? What is more courageous than to go against the societal norm for His sake? What takes more bravery than to lay down your life for another?

As Christians, this is exactly what God asks of us.


Jesus isn't really Mr. Popular right now. Look around. Everywhere we look, virtue is ridiculed, goodness is mocked, and truth is silenced. It's an "every man for himself" world.

Everywhere we look, we see the fruit of this terrible seed. We see hunger, we see hurt, we see hopelessness.

But what if it wasn't "every man for himself"? What if it was every man for Him?

What if a radical group of people decided not to be afraid anymore? What if they decided that what the world had to offer them was just not good enough and that everyone deserves something more than the lies it tries to force on us? What if they died to their pride to be truly alive in humility? What if they chose to let their own desires waste away and strove to meet the needs of others? What if they committed the equivalent of social suicide by committing themselves to a life in Christ? What if they laid their lives down in that way?

The results would be unbelievable.

Hunger would be met, hurt would be healed, and hope would be restored.  

If we took the time to be the hands, feet, and voice of Christ in a world that so badly needs Him, we would start to see Heaven on Earth. Not because of us, but because of Him in us.


There's a quote that I love. Mark Hart, a popular speaker and prolific author, once said something along the lines of, "'Thy kingdom come' means my kingdom go." It couldn't be more true.


If we want the world to change, we have to change the world. Just a heads up, the world is not going to like it, and that means it's not going to like us. We will be hated, and shunned, and ridiculed. And that's okay. Heroism thrives in the face of adversity. And if we need anymore convincing:

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10

I'm convinced.


It's up to us. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be hard, and it's going to be uncomfortable. But as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said, "You were not made for comfort; you were made for greatness."

You were made to be a hero.

Peace be with you.
Caitlin

Childlike: What It's Not

"Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven." Mathew 18:3

I want to talk about what this doesn't mean. I will write another post about what it does mean next week.


When I see myself before God as a child, I am in a candy store.

The whole event is perfectly ingrained in my mind. I can visualize myself. I am 5 years old, small and adorable with lovely blond curls.

Like most kids in a candy store, I want the candy.

I want it so badly that I am throwing a royal fit. I am lying on the ground, screaming, crying and kicking my legs. I want that candy and I want it now!

The only part of this story that's real is that those are the kind of fits I threw as a child. Thankfully, I don't throw those kinds of fits anymore when I don't get what I want. At least not literally.


But I have to admit, when talking to God, I still throw those fits.

I yell at Him and think, "Why won't you just give me what I want?"

I want something and I want Him to give it to me. I know that it's childish to demand and beg and get mad when I do not get what I want.

Still, when I look deep down, I know that I still do this with God. I still throw fits and demand he give me what I want. Like I said, it's childish.


Childlike is something totally different. Stick around for next week when I go into detail about what it really means to be a child.


Trust me, it has nothing to do with throwing fits....


You are so loved.
~Emily

Sorry for the lack of posts last week... we all went on an unplanned blog hiatus. The good news is that Sarah is back and will be posting again! :)