Stranger than Fiction: Heroes

Ana Pascal : [to cast-covered Harold] So what happened? 
Harold Crick : I stepped in front of a bus. 
Ana Pascal : What? Why? 
Harold Crick : There was a boy I had to pull out of the way? Ana Pascal : What? 
Harold Crick : There was this boy, I had to... Ana Pascal : You stepped in front of a bus to save a boy? Harold Crick : I had to. I didn't have a choice.

                                    —Stranger than Fiction, Zach Helm

            Harold Crick knew when he stepped in front of that bus that he risked his life. And still, he could not do otherwise. He had to. That’s grounds for Superhero status if you ask me.

Heroes don’t always have superpowers or costumes. Sometimes heroes are simply the guy that lends a helping hand when your arm are full of groceries (or boxes—thanks again, Chase! ;) ). Or the woman that tends to a crying child’s scraped knee and hugs all the hurt away. Or a friend that offers a hug and a shoulder to cry on for your broken heart…

On the subject of powers: I firmly believe that everyone has the capacity to be somebody’s hero—and I know for a fact that my sweet, ordinary husband is one of them. No one is more fun than he. And for our three-year old daughter, that is plenty of grounds for Superhero-dom. And no one is better at fixing things than he, and for me, his ever-clumsy wife, that is grounds for Superhero-dom. No one is more withholding of judgment or more forgiving than he, and for his recovering drug-addict and borderline personality disorder sister, that is surely grounds for Superhero-dom. My husband is all of our hero, and each for a unique reason. Which reaffirms my conviction that everyone can be a hero. He may not even realize that he is our hero, but he is.

And on costumes: One very prominent hero in my mind wore only the guise of a construction worker. New York, January 2007, one man fell onto the subway tracks, seizing. Another man, waiting for his train with his two daughters saw the oncoming train and jumped onto the tracks, pushing the other man between the rails and ultimately saving his life. Wesley Autrey—surely the hero of the man who fell—said: “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right.”

 And my biggest hero—Jesus Christ—who literally saved my (eternal) life—wore carpenter’s clothes and preached bearing one another’s burdens. And He saved all of us.

So what are we doing with the life He saved for us? Are we paying it forward? Are we strengthening that legacy? I said before we all have the capacity for Superhero-ism—let us develop that capacity and become heroes to those around us, following Christ’s footsteps, that we may one day be like Him—the perfect hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbxkHA1gnSE