Hero Worship

I was realizing the other day, just how much we all love a hero. It’s not a profound observation. But as I thought about how movie, after novel, after TV series comes out about heroes, it dawned on me just how obsessed we are with “saving the day.”

We love our super heroes. We love our real life heroes. We love our magically-powered teens, and mutants who are thrust into the spotlight and forced to choose good or evil, to be heroes or villains. It makes me wonder. What’s with the hero worship?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you a brief history of man’s obsession with heroes, but I will admit, I think such a study would be utterly fascinating. Hero worship is woven into the fabric of who we are as human beings. Why?

Personally, I believe it’s because we are images of The Hero, created to be like Him, but incapable of it because of our current state: fallen. Not surprisingly, all our self-created heroes are faltered, temporary, lost, or broken . . . just like us. We celebrate one hero, but then need another. Hence, the thousands of years of gods, demi-gods, untouchable warriors, super-humans, benevolent aliens, genetically modified soldiers, and mutants turned socially-aware. They show a glimpse of greatness, perfection, even salvation, but it eventually fades, and they fail.

I don’t think there is any problem with hero worship.  I’m writing a story now, packed-full of heroes. In They will all play a part in winning the victory. It’s just that, they aren’t going to be able to do it themselves. Many of them will save the day, but then a new day dawns, and evil persists. Who saves everyone then?

The problem for us in real life is not that we worship a hero, but that we may not worship the right hero. While we are obsessed with “saving the day,” do we ever look a little further to find a hero that saves eternity? Now, there would be a hero worth worshiping!

Luckily for us all, there is such a hero.