By Mark A. Taylor
Kent State University professor David Dumpe asks his students, “How many of your parents raised you by saying you can be anything you want to be?”
Inevitably, two-thirds of the class raises its hands. To which the teacher replies, “Do you realize that”s a bunch of baloney?”
Jeffrey Zaslow reported this interchange in his Wall Street Journal column titled “In Praise of Less Praise.” Today”s workers, he says, have grown weary of meaningless efforts at building self-esteem””from their bosses as well as their parents. Examples from his report: One nurse said she was insulted when she received a toaster as an incentive. A seventh-grade teacher tells her students they are not the center of the universe, in spite of what they may have been told at home. “You are not wonderful. You are one of many.”
Zaslow”s conclusion: “If everybody”s special, then no one is.”
But isn”t every Christian special? Well, yes. I”m special because God loved me enough to send his Son to die for me. There”s no better boost to my own self-esteem than that. But what”s true about me is true about every Christian, indeed every person. “God so loved the world. . . .”
In this world, not everyone is a star or a standout. Not everyone is a hero.
I thought about heroes when I read Zaslow”s column. We do so much teaching and preaching about Bible heroes, it seems to me, especially with children. We love to tell them about David and Moses and Peter and Paul and dozens more. This is good. God gave us the stories for our learning and teaching.
But do you ever wonder about all the believers who lived with these heroes? Are you content to live like one of these unnamed others, instead of those with their names in lights? After all, not everyone preaches on the Day of Pentecost””or at the North American Christian Convention. Not everyone challenges Pharaoh””or the political power brokers of our century. Not everyone leads a nation””or even a college or a megachurch.
But everyone can be faithful. And if providence and circumstance call for heroes, our faithfulness will have prepared us for the challenge. That”s what”s happening at Rocky Mountain Christian Church in Niwot, Colorado. Leaders there have been thrust into a confrontation whose outcome will affect congregations throughout our country (see page 8). Like David before Goliath or Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar, they are facing the challenge with trust in God. Let”s call them heroes.
Meanwhile, the rest of us can be “one of many” who remain true to God in our everyday service. In this day and age, that”s wonderful enough.
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