Real American Heroes

I happened to be on a very small 1982 CESSNA 210 CENTURION (I think. I was a passenger not the pilot, I just knew it was small, very, very, small) last week for about five hours, flying in neat little circles around the Chicago land area and like NASCR it was left turn only.

Being up there with earphones on waiting for when the rubber band turning the propeller would be breaking and I would suddenly find myself plummeting to my death, my mind understandably started to wonder. The pilot of this airplane had just been back from a tour of Iraq. The pilot was a reservist that volunteered to go back to full duty even though he had not been called up. He left a family behind and went to do what he felt was his duty. He has now returned and has continued serving people with his civilian job.

His service to our country and our people, made me wonder about the nature of heroes I keeping hearing in the media. I keep watching how ESPN is doing everything they can to bring Kobe Bean Bryant (LA Lakers)back into respectability. I watched how LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)just stormed off the court when he could have shown the world what good sportsmanship looked like. One of my heroes once was Michael Jordan but he has been revealed to be a twisted and broken human being that was only good for one thing and that was basketball.

Today, it seems our heroes are only about what they accomplish in their limited given arena. We are supposed to be impressed by their money, their consumption, their greed, what ever can be marketed to the public and what the purple diamond ring they buy to get out of trouble.

This is a real hero. It is someone that cares about others more than themselves. It is someone that understands that the things of this world will not last and rather than buying that Bentley gives that money to the poor and drives a Toyota. It is someone that knows that they will have to sacrifice some of their desires/needs/wants in order to aid others. It is someone that holds others up before they hold themselves up. They do not hate, they love. They do not seek revenge, they provide forgiveness. This is a real hero. This was the pilot of my plane. These are the people I look up to and these are the people we should be telling others about.

Throw out your Jordan, LeBron and Kobe gear, buy a white tee shirt and find your local hero. Write his/her name on the shirt and tell everyone you know why the name on your shirt is the name of a true hero. I think one of the greatest things in the world would be the question of, "whoes that guy?" So I can say, "let me tell you of my hero".

John 15:13

13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.