“I think we throw the word ‘hero’ around too glibly. Just living the way you ought to doesn’t make someone a hero. When you work hard, do your job without complaining, and help the people around you that doesn’t make you a hero; it makes you a human being.” – WW2 veteran
Today started with a “leave the house early” 7:00 meeting in Zephyrhills. This is the 5th year in a row I’ve been asked to speak at the interdenominational men’s fellowship breakfast, and it’s always a treat. The guys are consistently enthusiastic, upbeat, and encouraging. Attendance has increased every time without fail; talk about your cloud of faithful witnesses.
Lyndon and Joyce Creager
VETERANS: Then it was off to Riverview, where I was scheduled to interview three more veterans.
I was impressed, as always, by the humility of these people who put everything on the line to serve their country. But, at the same time, I get where they’re coming from; they don’t present themselves as heroes because they understand in so many ways why they are not.
They were better than heroes, they were faithful.
REGULAR JOEs: The veterans I talked with today aren’t even vaguely interested in parades or medals or accolades. Every one of them – and I’ve talked with 14 since the beginning of January – have made sure to get this one point across: “We didn’t do anything special, we just did what was asked of us.”
One man made sure the point counted even more profoundly when he disagreed with a visitor who said, “But you were a special breed; they don’t make ‘em like you anymore!”
“No we weren’t,” he countered. “And they do. I believe with all my heart that – given the same circumstances – Americans would respond in the same way today.”
The Creagers today
BELIEF: The WW2 vet I was talking with possesses a firm belief in people, and in decency, and in freedom. What he was saying was that each one of us has – at the core of who we are – an intuitive understanding about who we were created to be, and what we are called to do.
For this particular veteran, dissing younger generations, or suggesting that another political viewpoint is somehow less freedom-loving, would be tantamount to denying the fundamental truths that framed the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution of the United Sates.
In other words, we were created to shine, and to serve; we were created to raise the bar so much higher than the run-of-the-mill.
“I think we throw the word ‘hero’ around too glibly,” he told me. “Just living the way you ought to doesn’t make someone a hero. When you work hard, do your job without complaining, and help the people around you that doesn’t make you a hero; it makes you a human being.”
FAITHFUL: I believe he’s right. His generation rose to the task at hand. What makes all the difference is living with a sense of purpose, and living like we mean it. If we do that, if we embrace this life-charged life, if we chose to LIVE… then we have all those hero qualities ready to go.
And that is called “Responding like a Child of the Living God” – DEREK
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