Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
9/30/2021
Why are hero’s important?
Who was or is your hero? When scripture said, Iron sharpens Iron, they weren’t thinking of Tony Starke in Iron Man. But honestly, take a moment, who are yours? What did they inspire in you? Why were they important to you? Were they a person of faith that inspired you or was it a movie figure?
Thomas Jefferson used the phrase moral elevation to describe the euphoric feeling one gets when reading great literature. I recently read an article that spoke about hero’s and their impact on us. It said, when people experience elevation, they feel a mix of awe, reverence, and admiration for a morally beautiful act. The emotion is described as similar to calmness, warmth, and love. Haidt argues that elevation is “elicited by acts of virtue or moral beauty; it causes warm, open feelings in the chest.”
Heroes are role models who perform behaviors that reinforce our most treasured values and connections with others. As spiritual teacher Richard Rohr notes, “hero stories inspire us all because they call us all”. Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a mere fisherman, saved 3,000 people in his first sermon in Acts. He was too humble to classify himself that way.
There are surely good heroes in the world who have sacrificed themselves for others and those who walk in the power of the holy spirit. But as Christians, we believe the real power of inspiration and transformation comes directly from the Holy Spirit and not only changes the hero or the person but also transforms the world for Christ.
This emotion, elevation, we feel upon witnessing a heroic act transforms us into believing we are capable of heroic acts ourselves. They build connections between people, encourage us to transform ourselves into Christ’s image, and call us to become influencers and givers to others around us. They lift and inspire us spiritually.
Our Courageous men’s group accomplishes many things if one makes themselves available to God’s leading. We come because we are drawn by the Holy Spirit to fill a hole or gap in our spiritual man. And even though we may not know it at the time we have something to give also.
Jesus was a born hero, was revolutionary, he bore a message of love, gentleness, generosity, forgiveness, and salvation while all the Romans exerted was power and killing.
Historian and author H. G. Wells wrote, “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
It isn’t about becoming a hero as a Christian. It is about becoming the person God desires, as well as a person that others should want to follow. It is a matter of the type of legacy you want to leave. In that walk of commitment to Christ, it’s imperative that we give careful attention to the real us, the person we are on the inside. Listen, gifts, and abilities may open doors, but character will determine what we do once those doors are open.
Each of us has some character traits we would not choose to speak of. But the Holy Spirit over time transforms our character by the washing of God’s word.
1 Timothy 3:2-7 ESV
"Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil".
Character then becomes who we are because of our relationship with Christ.
It is something that can be built and learned as we follow Him. Furthermore, genuine Christian character is not just about our personality or our disposition. It is a description of who we are as Christians ̶ and what we are called to be in our entirety.
I look up to a few men as my spiritual heroes and to a couple as spiritual fathers. I believe an even higher distinction. They have always been who I want to become. Reach out to one this week and let them know the impact they have had on your life. They may be embarrassed but we all need encouragement and we are all called to be encouragers.
Lord guide me to be a Godly man of character and to show forth your goodness within me…for your glory Lord, not mine.
Graves Into Gardens (Lyrics) – Elevation Worship ft. Brandon Lake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTvv-9zosPs
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