Valerie Rae Hanneman
Philippians 2:10-12 (ESV) “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
I ran into a friend at a Christian Conference a while back. She had taken a new job at a Christian ministry a few months before and we hadn’t seen much of each other since then. As we walked to the next session a little further down the street we stopped to sit and chat at a bus stop. As we sat there a number of people greeted her as they walked by. I didn’t know any of them, so as they walked away, my friend told me who these people were. I recognized some of their names, the ones that I didn’t recognize she made sure to tell me who they were. According to her, they were all the movers and shakers of the Christian community. Then this tall dark-haired man walked by. He looked at my friend for a moment, and then the light came on as he recognized her. He greeted her by name and then went on. I looked at my friend and she was positively giddy. “Can you believe that? He remembered my name!” “Who was that?” I asked. She gave me this look of disbelief. “That was H!” “H?” I said, “That’s his name? H?” “That was H Spees!” she said in awe. I was just sitting there looking at her wondering when Fresno had crowned a king – and how did I miss the announcement? At my blank look she proceeded to tell me all about H Spees. I could tell from the way she described him and the tone of her voice, that she was highly impressed by this man I had never even heard of. “He’s the most important man in Fresno!” she gushed, “and he knows my name!” I couldn’t help myself so I said, “I know somebody more important than H and he calls me by name too.” She gave me a “Yeah, right” look and said, “Who do you know?” “I know Jesus and actually, He calls me His own.” I could tell that my answer surprised her. She stuttered for just a second then said, “Well, yeah, you’re right – but H is here and doing good things.” To be honest, her reaction surprised me. It almost seemed as if she were brushing Jesus aside in favor of this man who was here on earth and doing good things. Please understand, I am not questioning the level of her faith or her love for Jesus. Both are strong. But I wondered if she had allowed her hero-worship to get a little misdirected.
There is nothing wrong with having heroes. I think that we need heroes – somebody to look up to and often times try to emulate. How many times have you seen somebody on the street and knew who they looked up to? A young man with his britches hanging onto his rear end by a thread, his hat backwards and the “gansta-rap” strut. Or a young woman with her belly button pierced looking like Britney Spears. We make household names of actors, elevating them high above us. And when they are actually someplace where we can see them – maybe even touch them – we join the people swarming around them.
The above are examples of secular heroes, but even we Christians have heroes. I have a number of heroes. There are men and women in our church whose testimony for Christ just awes me. Outside of our church there are Todd Agnew, Third Day and Rich Mullins, Christian singers whose lifestyles live out the music they sing, or Max Lucado who writes the most fantastic Christ centered books and whose life reflects what he writes. I am willing to travel to hear any of these and have on many occasions
The problem with these heroes is that they are all human and subject to human failings. When they fall off of the pedestal that we have put them on – it is a long hard fall. The sports hero is caught with drugs, the movie star has a drinking problem, the musician is arrested, and the Christian leader has a problem with pornography. We are shocked and disappointed to find out that the public face that they put on for us hides the human being who is just as broken and dysfunctional as we are. Our heroes are just like us.
I have another hero. This hero is my #1 hero. He will never fail, He will never change, and He will never have to think for a moment before He remembers my name. He will never disappoint me. He IS here on earth and He IS doing great things – in fact, He is changing me and He is changing the world. Jesus is my ultimate hero. He is the One that I try to be just like. Even the others who are heroes to me – what I copy about them is what is most like Jesus. I tease my spiritual mom, Samee Myers, that I want to be just like her when (if) I grow up. And I do. But I want to be like my hero, Jesus, today.
There was a long moment of silence on the bus stop and then my friend said, “I was name dropping, wasn’t I?” I gave a little nod of agreement. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I guess I was just trying to show you who I am because of who I know.” “You know Jesus,” I reminded her, “And when you know Him the rest of the “whose who” just don’t matter.”
“It’s not who you know,” she agreed, “It’s WHO you know.”
I teased her a little bit about making H. Spees sound like the king of Fresno. But the truth is that no matter how much H Spees does for the Kingdom, he will never be king.
The day is coming when Jesus will stand on this earth as her King of kings. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is LORD of all. And we are going to be in His entourage.
LORD Jesus, I can hardly wait for the day when all of humanity is on our knees before You declaring You to be King. I will joyfully take my place with them for You are my Hero, You are my King and You are my God. Help me to be more like You.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of Fresno First Baptist at valerie@fresnofirst.org.
Posted by Valerie at September 1, 2006 08:05 PM