On Being a Hero
by Reinder Bruinsma | 7 August 2024 |
I see his name almost daily on the front page of my newspaper, and I hear from him, or about him, in practically every television news bulletin—at least at the time I am writing this blog—and it will probably remain the situation for some time to come.
I am talking about Volodymir Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, the 46-year-old president of Ukraine. He once was a popular comedian and an actor who played the role of president in a TV series. His country suffered from chaos and corruption, so he decided to run as a candidate in Ukraine’s national elections. Zelensky won with an overwhelming majority, and was installed on May 20, 2019, as the sixth president of Europe’s second largest country—a country that has a population of over 44 million people.
Now, two years later, he is widely admired for his courage and has become a national and international hero.
Courageous people
Being courageous means bravery and daring, especially at times of crisis when the stakes are high. It means taking action when many do not have the nerve to do so. Heroes are men and women we admire for what they have the guts to do, often under very difficult circumstances. The hero might be a woman or man from the distant past, or a contemporary. It could even be a fictional or mythical figure.
We distinguish several categories of heroes. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), killed at the moment of his greatest victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, is remembered by the British as a great military hero. Michael Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, and Serena Williams are famous American sports heroes, who are also widely known in other parts of the world. Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and other performers of the 007-role, as well as female stars such as Jane Fonda, Julia Roberts, and Meryl Streep have in the eyes of many moviegoers become movie heroes. The Netherlands longest-running musical, Soldier of Orange, is based on the true story of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, a World War II resistance hero.
The eleventh chapter from the biblical book of Hebrews is known to Christians as the gallery of heroes of faith. Reading and re-reading this section of scripture is a inspiring—yet rather baffling— experience. It recounts the brave deeds of men and women who put their own lives on the line in the service of their God. We learn about an elderly man who was told by God to migrate, together with his family, to an unknown destination. About someone who killed a lion with his bare hands. And about men and women who “faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment” and similar cruel forms of death.
We admire the heroes of the past and the present. Often that admiration is accompanied by the realization that we ourselves are not so courageous. We are not sure whether we would be capable of similar heroism at the critical moment. When I hear of someone who went into a burning house to save a child, I wonder if I could muster that kind of courage in such a situation. Many other Adventists and I watched with excitement and immense admiration the movie Hacksaw Ridge, the story of the non-combatant medic Desmond Doss, who put his life on the line during the battle for the Japanese island of Okinawa and succeeded in saving 75 men.
I am fascinated by another Adventist who became famous because of his heroic role in the Dutch-Paris Escape Line, part of a resistance organization that saved the lives of about one thousand Jews and others who had to flee from the German Gestapo during World War II. Jean Weidner (1912-1994) defied the ever-present danger of being captured, tortured, and sent to his death in a concentration camp to assist people to reach the French-Swiss border and cross into freedom over the Salève mountain range, behind the Adventist College of Collonges.
No, I don’t think I could have been part of that courageous group.
Courage and faith
Desmond Doss and Jean Weidner were heroes. They were also men of faith. But should we therefore consider them heroes of faith? Or were they rather war heroes after all? There are many non-believer heroes in addition to believers such as Doss and Weidner, and it is difficult to precisely map the relationship between courage and faith.
But, even if there are undeniably non-believing heroes, many Christians will tell us that their faith has often been a source of courage for them. In Psalm 23—one of the best-known spiritual hymns—David confesses his trust in God:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
We hear an echo of these words God spoke through the prophet Isaiah:
“Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, RSV).
How does this happen? How does God give us courage. Would you and I be capable of heroic deeds?
We should not expect to match the courage of people like President Zelenskyy, Desmond Doss, or Jean Weidner overnight—or even in the long run. But what we may expect is that God will give us the courage to be sincere and honest in our everyday lives and to confidently bear witness to our faith, even when that may not always seem expedient.
It may sometimes take courage to pray in a busy restaurant before our meal, to tell others about our faith, or to ask colleagues not to swear in our presence. But God can and will give us that kind of courage if we ask Him for it.
Could I be a hero?
Whether we have the courage to perform a truly heroic act, we will discover only when we are in an exceptional situation. Do I have the courage to jump into a canal to save a child from drowning before my very eyes? Frankly, I don’t know. As I think about it at this moment, sitting at my desk, I wonder if it would be wise to do so. Am I a good enough swimmer? Wouldn’t there be a good chance that such a heroic act on my part would fail, only resulting in an additional casualty? Perhaps I needn’t worry in anticipation of that eventuality, but simply can pray and ask God to continually guide me and make it clear at critical moments what I should do. Who knows if I could become a hero in such circumstances?
I recently read a fascinating but also very sobering book by the Japanese author Shūsaku Endō about Sebastian Rodrigo, a young Portuguese priest who travelled in 1638 to Japan at a time when the Japanese authorities had turned against the Catholic missionaries and tortured and killed many of them. If I have ever heard about a hero of faith, it was this heroic man. Would I have been able to persist with my missionary task in the face of such deadly opposition? Or would I have looked for the first ship to take me back to Portugal?
In the Middle Ages and in the Reformation era, millions of Christians—Protestants of various persuasions and Roman Catholics—paid for their faith with their lives. Had I lived in those times, would I have been able to walk to the stake singing a Psalm as many did? And suppose one day there were to be a persecution of Seventh-day Adventists in my part of the world as the traditional Adventist end-time scenario predicts. How courageous would I be? Would I be able to remain steadfast in my faith even if it required a high price?
There is only one answer to questions like that: God expects that we pray to Him each day for the strength needed to face the challenges of that particular day. And then leave everything else to him.
Perhaps you think you could never become a hero. After all, who among us can cannot stand in the shadow of the brave men and women we encounter in our history books, or on the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews? But remember: many of the heroes we learned about in our history books were not perfect people. The same is true of the heroes in the Bible. Noah had a drinking problem. Jacob cheated on his disabled father. David had sex with someone else’s wife.
And let’s not think that heroes were never afraid before they became heroes. Anne van der Bijl (1928-2022), the famous smuggler of Bibles into communist countries in the Cold War era, emphasized that a hero is not someone who is never afraid, but someone who perseveres in spite of his fear.
Let us pray daily for courage for all the small—and possibly big—challenges we face in life. We do not know whether we will ever be called upon to be heroic, but we do know that God can give us the right amount of courage we need at the right time. Therefore, “be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psalm 31:24).
Reinder Bruinsma lives in the Netherlands with his wife, Aafje. He has served the Adventist Church in various assignments in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He still maintains a busy schedule of preaching, teaching, and writing. He blogs at http://reinderbruinsma.com/.
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