It’s been a tough year. And 2022? It’s anybody’s guess what we’ll read in the headlines this year. But you’ve heard the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
The question is, How do they get going? One of my motivators in life is having heroes. Not so much the ones carved into marble, but those who often pass unnoticed in our towns.
Moms and dads investing in their kids. Compassionate cops. Selfless school teachers. Widows who square their shoulders against the grief and keep going. Marriage partners committed through thick and thin. Young people who don’t buckle under the pressure to compromise. Intrepid missionaries. Good neighbors. There are lots of them out there, if we have eyes to see.My heroes aren’t flawless. Who is, except Jesus? But my heroes understand the first key to success: Failure doesn’t need to be final.
Those who believe the Bible are, at the same time, the most pessimistic and optimistic of people. We understand, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in “The Gulag Archipelago,” “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”
The Christian can know the worst about humanity, and also think the best of others without playing games with the truth. We believe that “all have sinned.” (Rom 3:23) Far worse, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” (7:18) But we also believe that no one is beyond redemption because “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim 1:15) We all qualify for His astronomical offer.
The second thing I’ve noticed about real heroes? They don’t wait for some great moment to arrive. They just do ordinary things each day, but in extraordinary ways. Like Mrs. McKinney, the special needs assistant who saw the demoralizing effect on students who never got their clothes washed. She brought some used clothes to school and, on a messy day, would swap with them, taking as many as a hundred articles of clothing home, do laundry through the night, and bring the clean ones the next day. Now that’s heroic!
Another characteristic of real heroes: they don’t consider themselves heroes. Like the former Mayor Tolan of Crawford, who was always in his pickup, dressed in work clothes, solving someone’s problem. He didn’t wait for Washington to fix it or delegate it to others. Caesar-like, he could say, “I came. I saw. And use my hammer, too.” A hero’s one-word philosophy: Justgiterdone.
Of course, Jesus is the ultimate hero. You’ll never go wrong following Him! But it’s good to have live action heroes in our field of vision, too. The apostle Paul said, “Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1) Like two sights on a rifle, it helps us hit the target.
What’s the target for 2022? Ordinary, everyday, supernatural, heart-gripping heroism! But how can we love people the way they need loving? Only by depending on the God who “is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” (2 Cor 9:8)
So have a blessed New Year, but don’t miss out on the real joy of having a New Year of blessing others, too.
Religion Page article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch on Sunday, Jan 2, 2022.