Real Heroes are Never Part of the Status Quo

Adventurer Steve Fossett seems like a decent man. He has a winning smile and eyes that sparkle with possibility. I’m sure he’s a hoot to party with. For the sake of his circle of friends and family, let’s pray he comes out of the desert alive. But for all his records in the air and on the sea, his heroism is of the petite variety.
Real heroes are never conventional. Conventional heroes may show bravery in the face of danger, as Fossett surely has, but true courage is always in opposition to the status quo. Someday we may have a culture so fine that this will cease to be true. But for now it’s as much a fact as in the days of Jesus, Moses, Elijah and Jeremiah. True heroes stand up for what could be, what should be, against what is. For true heroes it’s not about the self—as it clearly is for Fossett—it’s about putting one’s self at risk to serve God’s good intentions. Simply putting one's self at risk is not enough to make a hero.
Those who followed Jesus could plainly hear that he spoke with authority not present in the words of their established religious leaders—mirroring God and not simply mimicking God as the scribes and Pharisees. The kings of Israel and Judah tried desperately to exclude their true prophets, instead assembling a cadre of counterfeit prophets who would tell them what they wanted to hear. So it remains. If you doubt it, turn on any news network and hear the prophets of the status quo—each well compensated for their effort—struggling mightily to make things seem right when we as a people know in our hearts they are not.
Finding truth was never meant to be as easy as lying back on the couch and turning on the TV. Prophets in general are not found in comfortable places. Jesus’ followers walked great distances to isolated places to hear the truth. And that brings us back to Mr. Fossett: Let’s pray he comes out alive. Maybe, like Jesus, he will have had a desert epiphany.