The Heroes in Our Own Backyard
These days we seem to find every fear finding fault and heart breaking wrong happening in our own backyards. These things are happening, there is no doubt. Rape, incest, and sex trafficking. Drug possession, drug manufacturing, and drug trafficking. Shop-lifting, burgarly, and robbery. Kidnapping, domestic abuse, and murder.
It is all around us and it is real. It is also something the news is very sure on delivering the facts on.
We then tend to look to the media and public figures for our role models. We look to our church leaders, our spiritual gurus, and the saints of the world for how to live our lives. We believe that the famous know more than our neighbors, our co-workers, and our close friends about the secrets of life.
By doing this we miss the heroes in our own backyard.
I suggest today that we stop listening for a minute to the banter of the bad news in our neighborhoods. I suggest we take a pause from considering where our world is going with our new leaders. I suggest that perhaps today we thank and acknowledge those that are doing big things and great things in the world, but I also suggest we look closely at those we interact with on a daily basis to see their greatness.
Let’s look to our family members, our co-workers, and our neighbors to see their heroism and to appreciate the lessons they have to teach us. Yes, we stand on the shoulders of giants…but we also walk amongst some of the bravest and most beautiful heroes and heroines in the world.
Can we look at our family members who just recovered from an illness, just lost a loved one, or just landed their first job and see their majesty?
Greatness is found in the grocery clerk, the Walmart employee, and the healthcare workers that have been working diligently every single day since COVID-19 outbreak. The new Mom who is finding herself in a new role and learning to live life differently than ever before holds her own beauty. Your co-worker who has made a name for herself despite her abusive childhood has lessons to teach you about resilience.
That friend from high school that is now playing in a band at the age of 52 will shine some light on your world. Your neighbor who suffered a car accident and is now a quadriplegic and gets up out of bed everyday to do his best is to be revered. Remember that lady from church who lost her job and started her own business? She may not make a lot of money, but I bet she has something to teach you about following your passion. The recovering alcoholic or addict who now holds a beautiful job and has an amazing marriage will tell you their miracle if you ask. You will learn what grit and never giving up no matter what will do for you through the many faces you see everyday.
The countless people who are suffering from anxiety and depression, but still pour out their love to their families and clients everyday despite how they feel are our heroes. The women and men who stand together and support one another even though they don’t have much material gain show us how to truly love. The teenager who is skydiving for the first time will show us how to live moments with abandon. The shy person who greets everyone with a smile is an angel among us.
We can and will find grandeur in our backyards…if we but only look for it. We walk among Angels and Giants everyday. But are we taking the time to look into the eyes of everyone in our lives and to see their true strength and glory? Are we looking at every single person we meet in our day and asking what beauty they are showing us?
I assure you, what you look for you will absolutely find.
Look for the good in others and you will find the virtue in them. Look for the bad in others and you will find the inferiority in them.
We owe it to ourselves and to the fellows in our lives to look for the good, the virtuous, the kind and good-hearted in each and every person who crosses our path. We owe it to our world to look at everyone from a new lens….a lens of finding the hero within them.
How will you look at those in your life today?