Barbara at MommyLife is blogging about and asking about heroes. She lists four heroes: Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Henry V, and Mother Teresa. I tend to take my heroes (and heroines) from fiction rather than rather real life since there’s then no danger of my finding out that the person I was admiring is not such a hero after all. In fact, I think I became rather careful about real life heroes when I was a teenager. I greatly admired a couple in my church, Godly people, wise teachers, hospitable, leaders in our church. You can probably guess the end of the story. A couple of years after I graduated from high school the wise Christian man to whom I had gone for counsel and advice left his wife and four children saying that his wife of twenty years was no longer interesting or attractive to him. I was disillusioned, to say the least. Even historical heroes can be deconstructed and demythologized, a la Thomas Jefferson, into anti-heroes or at least flawed heroes.

The danger in having fictional heroes is that I may not be able to live up to their fictional perfection. However, high standards aren’t all bad, as long as you cut yourself some slack. At least with fictional heroes, I know all about the person, good and bad. Frodo’s not going surprise and disillusion me by deciding to give in to the evil of Sauron. So my fictional heroes are:
1. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. Like Churchill, they never gave up even when everything looked as if it were hopeless. And contrary to the movie depiction, they never lost faith in each other. I want to be as faithful and loyal and hopeful as Sam Gamgee.
2. Horton. (Dr. Seuss) “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. And an elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.”
3. Frog and Toad. (Arnold Lobel) Their friendship is unshakeable. Even when Toad is a grouch or Frog is a bit dense, they still stick together and look out for each other.
4. Don Quixote. He dreamed and believed in his dream no matter what happened. He endured suffering and abuse and hardship and misunderstanding and doubt and still knew himself to be Don Quixote de la Mancha, knight errant.

I begin to see a theme here. My heroes are those who live out this verse: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7

I do have some Biblical heroes:
1. Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 13:15
2. Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69

And I do admire some living and historical people. I simply remind myself that human beings may fail or disappoint, but there is only One who never fails.

1. Joni Eareckson Tada. She continues to point to hope in the Lord after twenty or more years in a wheelchair.
2. I know at least two mothers who have been serving the Lord, homeschooling their children, honoring their husbands for many years. SJ has thirteen children, and several of them are grown. SJ isn’t perfect, and neither are her children, although those who are grown are serving the Lord, too. However, she is faithful. She continues to do what God has called her to do, faithfully serving her husband and her children and her Lord. She is a heroine.
JR has seven children. She also remains faithful to her calling in spite of physical infirmities and prodigal children. Some of her children have made good choices, and some have not–yet. She continues to pray for them and love them and train her other children who are still at home. She, too, is a heroine.
3. Corrie ten Boom. She served the Lord in obscurity until World War 2 and Hitler’s persecution of the Jews brought a crisis of decision to her doorstep. She couldn’t turn these persecuted people away, so she hid them. Then she survived prison and managed, by God’s grace, to forgive those who were cruel to her and killed her sister, Betsy. And she never quit testifying to the goodness and hope to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ: “there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
4. C.S. Lewis. He, too, remained faithful to His Lord to the end of his life. “Feelings come and go, and when they come a good use can be made of them: they cannot be our regular spiritual diet.” The Screwtape Letters

These are the kinds of heroes I want to emulate. I want, not to just make a good start, but to finish the race. I want to be found faithful.
Thanks, Barbara, for making me think about heroes and renew my commitment to faithfulness in the Lord’s grace.