Who is a hero? Start by thinking of three kinds of notable people -- talents, celebrities, and heroes.
The virtues of Christ-likeness enlarge and stretch us as human beings and function as the ultimate goal for human excellence..
No one has been constricted by virtues.
The modern pseudo-heroisms will warp our lives if we pursue them with determination.
Our final hope is in God\'s mercy for us in our sin.
Of course, we can\'t be perfectly Christ-like.
Unlike so much of today\'s pseudo-heroism, this Heroism is accessible to anyone.
You are to reflect on all of these heroic virtues in the story of Jesus\' life, be inspired, and live them out with each other as Jesus lived them out for you.
The imitation of Christ cannot be reduced to one heroic virtue, as is often done with, for example, bravery.
These virtues include humility, love, service, forgiveness, willingness to suffer unjustly, and courage.
This imitation is not about Jesus\' supposed long hair and sandals but is about looking at specific New Testament teachings which tell you to live for each other in the ways that Jesus lived and died for you.
Real Heroism is found in a fresh look at the imitation of Christ and other people who are Christ-like in partial and imperfect ways.
The fool helps you to be disenchanted with the fool\'s "heroism", feeling aversion toward a pseudo-hero who is without glory or honor.
In the stories of the Bible, the fool is never glamorous or attractive.
It is dangerous to hang out with one.
He or she is revealed as the unhero, a loser, and a jerk.
In them, the fool is unmasked, exposed not as stupid but as lacking humility before God and neighbor.
The Bible helps us by showing us the false hero as the fool in narratives long and short.
You have to scrape off false heroes like peeling paint off a house before new paint can stick.
Pseudo-heroes do not just go away when we ask them to leave.
They tell you what person you want to become and its opposite, what person you want to avoid becoming.
It also creates two powerful motivations through your imagination -- aspiration and aversion.
Heroism links your imagination to your future. (Think of Maya Angelou\'s "We come from the creator, each of us trailing wisps of glory.") The desire for Heroism is to connect with glory, greatness, or excellence in our life-story.
Made in his image, we can reflect something of the glory of God.
As humans, we are each a "glorious ruin" - glory by creation in God\'s likeness and ruin because we are flawed by sin.
I have approached Heroism as a Christian, convinced that we are best understood in the light of our connection with our Creator.
But they also drag us into self-disgust because we feel so poor, dull and ugly compared to the stars.
These heroes do not stretch us toward aspiration, they make us more content with mediocrity.
So we have become consumers and daydreamers, skilled in vicarious fandom, psychic hitch-hiking into a Heroism of compensation.
For most of us, they are out of reach and we know it.
They are usually talented people, super-achievers from professional sports, entertainment, wealth, and power.
The more life seems trivial, the more Cynicism seems justified, so why even think about heroes? The heroes who make it past Cynicism and Celebrity are not likely to be moral heroes.
The more cynical you are, the more life seems trivial.
But they actually work well together to discredit heroism.
Cynicism deflates and debunks while Celebrity inflates and exaggerates.
They seem to work in opposite directions.
We find two blocks to taking Heroism seriously in our society -- Cynicism and trivialization by celebrity.
Heroes rightly understood, have lived with a moral excellence that is worthy to be emulated.
Celebrities are well known, usually for having some talent.
Talents do something really well.
Who is a hero? Start by thinking of three kinds of notable people -- talents, celebrities, and heroes
