Are There Heroes Anymore?

Sometimes I feel like I'm over-saturated with the issue of heroes in our society. We have a television show by that name for crying out loud. We constantly look to media to elevate heroes, but in the undercurrent we also have an increasing desire to see flawed heroes.

In terms of pop culture you could look to Jack Bauer, the counter-terrorism agent that tortures his captives and then deals with the aftermath. He is a hero to some, yet his family has fallen apart, his government has turned against him, and he can hardly sleep at night because of the atrocities he's committed.

Then, of course, there's the show LOST. LOST is my favorite, and has depicted the hero, Jack, in a downward spiral till he's no hero at all, while the flawed characters have been elevated to hero status. We seem to be in a different world than fifty years ago when Superman dominated the comics as the hero of truth, justice, and the American way. Now we doubt that there is any real universal truth, justice is a fluke that seems only available to those wealthy enough to bribe the system, and the American way is clouded with Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the like.

But tonight I came face to face with people who still have heroes. In fact, they look up to them in such a way that they mimic everything they can about them. They view the shoes of their hero as not to large to try and step into even if they can't fill those same shoes. Their hero presses them to grow and mature, to learn and experience life. When I saw these girls mimicking their mother I was drawn to reflect on the heroes of our lives. I think that one of the chief virtues is simplicity. If we could simplify our lives by finding and mimicking good mentors and heroes, we will one day grow into the shoes that we can't seem to fill right now.

Paul said, "follow me as I follow Christ." It is a Christian practice to find older more mature Christians and learn from and mimick them. Do you have heroes of the faith?