Celebrities and Heroes

We hear the word “hero” thrown around a lot today. If a person is a great athlete, adept at a certain sport, we will call him or her a sports hero. There is a computer game called “Guitar Hero.” And then there is the sandwich we call a hero. We hear the word used a lot. But do we even know what it means? It seems to me that in our culture we have many celebrities, but very few heroes.

A hero is a person who does something selfless, something sacrificial. A hero is someone who puts the needs of others above his or her own. Sometimes heroes are known in their own lifetime for their achievements. Then there are times people are called heroes long after they are gone. In this case, we sometimes call them unsung heroes, because we didn’t realize how heroic they were until after some time had passed. The stand they took wasn’t the popular thing to do at the time, but in retrospect, we realize they were heroic—they really were doing the right thing when no one else was.

Unsung heroes are sometimes wives and at other times are husbands. Sometimes they are children. But more often they are parents. Unsung heroes can be teachers, coaches, uncles or aunts. Grandparents are automatically heroes in my book, unless they do something to mess that up. An unsung hero is someone who works behind the scenes and doesn’t care if another person gets the credit. Sometimes unsung heroes are sidekicks. Where would Sherlock Holmes be without the faithful Dr. Watson? Where would the Lone Ranger without Tonto?

There are a lot of unsung heroes who never get the credit. And though they may be unknown to us, they are completely known to God.