WANTED: HEROES

This year on Aug 29, the last Monday of August, our nation will remember her heroes of long ago, men and women who fought for what they believed was our sovereign right as a people, and who braved death against all odds.  Those that fight political battles are called heroes; those that fight spiritual battles are called saints. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had more heroes and more saints in our midst?  A.W. Tozer in his book entitled Of God and Man, says, “The fact is that we are not today producing saints.” 

We celebrate our heroes not only because they were the ones who fought the battles which we ourselves could not, or would not fight.  Fortunately, we are enjoying today a state of relative political calm, although our guards are always up.

On the other hand, you and I know that there is a fierce spiritual battle that is raging and has been raging since the fall of Adam in the hearts and minds of all mankind. Ours included. So how do we respond to Tozer’s indictment, and begin to create more hero-saints? I point to our celebration of heroes to give us clues to the answer. 

Heroes show us that life isn’t about living; it’s about dying.  Our heroes remind us that life is not worth living if it is not given up for someone else. Life is about being fit for the fight, it’s about staying the course, about fighting the day to day struggles that many people walk away from. 

But we don’t even have to reflect on the achievements of our national heroes to know this truth.  Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat”?  Didn’t Jesus say, “he who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted”?  Didn’t Jesus ask, “what profit does a man show if he were to gain the whole world and destroy himself in the process?”  And, yes, He also said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Many of us often look for, and even pray for, the consolations or the rewards for hard, honest work:  we pray for the much desired promotion, the raise in salary, the Christmas bonus, a winning bid for a big contract, a loan approval to construct a nice house in Tagaytay.  Yet, if that isn’t what life is all about, then why pray for it?  No wonder James wrote in his letter, “You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, with a view to squandering what you receive on your pleasures.”  (James 4,3)  

Sure, we thank God for these worldly consolations when we get them, because they are a gift from Him, but shouldn’t we rather pray for opportunities to be heroes everyday?  Shouldn’t we pray more intently for opportunities to be of service to someone each day?  to die to ourselves for others?  for opportunities to honor God in the way we live for others?

I believe that when we do pray like this, then our eyes will be opened to all those providential situations when we can yield the right of way in traffic gladly, when we can gladly share credit with or maybe even give all of it to our colleagues,  when we can gladly share a bigger percentage of our profits with those who are less capable and less fortunate.  These are some of the many things that make us saints in the eyes of God, even if we may look like foolish businessmen in the eyes of the world. 

Because that is where the difference lies between heroism and sainthood.  Men more easily recognize a hero than a saint.  But God surely knows what is in the hearts and minds of all, and He sees the heroic act behind all our sacrifices even when mortal man is blind to the virtuous acts, and then He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, as we are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18).