Heroes

 Heroes. Regardless of our cultural background, we are all drawn to them. Pop culture abounds with movie and TV programs about them. Literature has always dealt heavily with them. Everyone loves a hero, and all of us, to some degree, want to be one, and the fame and notoriety that can go with that. 

Heroes are even found in the Bible. Hebrews 11 details many of them. Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. These are familiar names to those acquainted with His Word. They were all of them heroes of the faith. Yet Hebrews doesn't just speak of them, the ones we know. It speaks also of those we don't. Ones known only as "the others." No names are given. We're just old that these others were faithful to Him, trusted Him, believed Him....even to their deaths. Deaths that were often extremely violent. Verse 36 says, "They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life.." Verses 14-16 say they were "looking forward to a country they can call their own....a better place. A heavenly homeland."

Yes, we're drawn to heroes and place them on pedestals, but I don't think the greatest heroes have a pedestal. They're found in the ranks of "the others" the Bible speaks of. These others lived out their lives unnoticed by most, but never to their God. They too were, are, "heroes of the faith." They're the pastors serving in posts where few see them and even fewer know of them....but they're faithful in that place. They're the husbands and wives in difficult marriages, perhaps advised by "friends" to leave and seek something new, but instead, press on, praying, believing, sacrificing, and trusting that their God is at work. They stay true to the promises made on their wedding day. They're the fathers, mothers, and single parents that in the midst of an ever darkening world, sacrifice themselves in order to raise up children who become adults of character and integrity. They're the ones that no matter the darkness of the way they may be walking, or the difficulties, even impossibilities they encounter, keep on believing Him, trusting Him, obeying Him, and all the while being His Light in that place. All of them know the better life, the best life won't be found here. They have hope in Him for now, but they know their ultimate hope lies in the country they look for. The country that is truly home. 

These ones are rarely noticed or applauded. Verse 38 says that the "world was not worthy of them." Jesus Christ calls them His. He calls them heroes. I hope, one day, that I will be able to stand among them. Do you? No doubt you're either now, or soon will be walking through a place, a relationship, a ministry, where you desperately need and are crying out for a breakthrough. A place where you may feel like giving up. Don't cease praying and trusting. Don't stop in your journey of faith. Breakthrough will come, but the breakthrough is not the final destination. His better country is. A country of heroes. A place filled with the "unknowns" of this lesser place, but whose names are known and celebrated by the population of heaven. They're the heroes of the faith. May we, you and I, be found among them.

Blessings,
Pastor O