Heroes

Throughout history there are heroes.   They are usually considered men or women of great acclaim – people who have changed history or have gained a spot in the record of life because of something they stood for or something they accomplished.  In most cases, their life actions proved to demonstrate their core belief system.  Over time, the attributes that qualify them as heroes are found more in their beliefs than their actions.

Not every hero is famous. Some are infamous.  Others may even be notorious.  Most are unsung, every day people, who have chosen to pay the price to live as they believe.  What makes a person a hero is in what he chooses to mean for others – even if they will never see it.  He is not motivated by personal glory, but by a sense of doing what is right – a sense of purpose fulfilled in that there is something that needs to be fulfilled in the world and they are the ones in the right time, the right place and the right season to bring it about.  They are human and real, and like the rest of the world, have their faults and weaknesses.  Yet, they are not defined by those weaknesses but by their strengths.  

Most never recognize their value as a hero.  They do not see their strength and are often even lost to define their purpose because they did not “locate it” in the sense that we are taught to do. They simply walked into their purpose and embraced it as it unfolded.  Ironically, they are the ones who usually look at the fabric of their lives, wondering if they will ever accomplish – ever have value.  They never recognize that the value they offered is found in the significant life change they bring to those they touch.

God placed such a hero in my life.  I will even identify him by name because I believe that when someone is a hero, he deserves the respect of recognition.  God blessed our family and our ministry nearly fourteen years ago by bringing David Gardner into our lives.  He embraced us, and in so doing, he chose to recognize and embrace the call of God on our lives.   We were still early in our ministry.  In many ways, our ministry and even our lives were being defined.  David risked his future and took the plunge to become part of the fabric of our lives.  He embedded himself into the work for whatever was needed to make for our success, both as ministers and as family.

David embraced the understanding that the Apostle Paul identified to the church at Ephesus,

  “What you make happen for others, God makes happen for you.”

Young men are philosophers and identify with such sayings in a particular way.  David embraced our ministry, our lives, and our faults when both of us were young enough to 

“have all of the answers.”  We were 

“God’s ministers of faith and power”

and knew how to rightly divide the principles of God(mild sarcasm implied). Age offer a clearer picture of life, and we matured, and grew.  In so doing, as we did for others, we developed a clear understanding of what would unfold for us – both individually and together.  Like so many others, we looked at the Elijah/Elisha model and followed the teaching of many of the voices of the day.  In that era, the understanding of the reward of an armor-bearer in ministry is that such a role was a necessary stepping-stone to having your own ministry.  You serve a man in ministry and God will elevate you to your own ministry.  A lot of “armor-bearers" embraced the task with exactly that in mind.  

And, a lot quit on God when they realized disappointment when their “ministry” never materialized.

I can honestly say that the price of launching successfully into your own ministry is that you will have to serve another’s.  It is part of the training ground and part of the price – a combination of “God’s School of Hard Knocks” and the seed sown into a successful future.  But through years of watching people “try and fail” in pursuing this path to produce ministry, I have come to understand something.  

There are those who have a season of serving another as they reach toward their destiny, and there are those who God uniquely ordains and commissions to serve the destiny of another.  

They are the Samwise Gamgee to Tolkien’s Bilbo Baggins in “The Lord of the Rings.”  The destiny of the one they serve becomes their destiny.  The notion that what you make happen for others, God makes happen for you takes on a different meaning. What happens in the life of the one you serve is a part of you.  The destiny you help fulfill n their life becomes your destiny as well. 

The world creates famous heroes.  They are identified throughout history, beginning with the heroes of the faith.  Yet, for all of the accomplishment of the famous heroes, nearly all of them would have been lost to success without those who were close behind them offering support and making things happen.  

The Apostle Paul is a great hero of the faith.  He even acknowledges some who stood with him and co-labored with him.  He gets the accolade because he authored the letters that became the foundation for the modern church.  But, what of those who dedicated their life to making certain that the churches throughout Asia received those letters?  It took great faith and great courage to write those words of inspiration form prison, but what of the person who risked his life to make certain those letters were read?  Without them, Paul’s writings, regardless of how profound, would have meant nothing in the course of history. 

In modern times we look at great ministers of the faith.  We see the Joyce Meyers, the Jentzen Franklins, the Andy Stanleys, the Creflo Dollars, and the T. D. Jakes of the world.  We hear their messages of hope and challenge.  We identify their testimonies and their crises of faith and we identify how they overcame and found their destiny.  We see their destiny unfold as they communicate with millions of people, both in huge live events and via television and books. Yet, we never realize that the destiny of those people was only brought into fruition by those who made certain that the cameras were pointed in the right direction, the editing was done with excellence, so that that individual could be cast in their best light.  More importantly, those individuals had to look past the human frailty of the leader they serve.  They have to wade past the “human condition” to recognize the greater purpose in that individual, and that without them you would never know who these individuals are.

There are people who have worked with Billy Graham for perhaps half a century.  Their call was his call.  Their destiny was fulfilled in his.  The destiny of Joyce Meyers is also the destiny of those who have co-labored with her behind the scenes.  Their destiny is not to “fulfill her destiny.”  Her destiny is  their destiny.  What God unfolds for her, He also unfolds for those who serve her purpose.  They share like purpose.

David asked the question many times: “What is my purpose?”  Or, 

“When will I discover my purpose?” 

He also has answered it many times, perhaps without realizing it, because his answer was cloaked in the mission of the day.  

“My mission is to see that the ministry that I serve reaches and brings change to others – that the minister God has called me to serve is able to effectively do what God has called him to do.  Whatever I need to do to help him accomplish his mission

becomes my task.”  

David started the process by serving the destiny in our lives.  He expected that God would allow him to fulfill the destiny in his life.  Fourteen years later, some would argue, he hasn’t found his destiny.  I say our destiny is intertwined.  My destiny is his destiny.  The success I enjoy is also his success.  That which happens for me also happens for him.

Paul defined this in Ephesians when describing the gifts God gives to all men, that we function together utilizing our specific abilities until all come into the unity of the faith.  Would I have a ministry without David?  Probably.  But it would not look anything like it does now.  Would it touch the same people? Perhaps not.  It may have touched other people in a different capacity.  Would it be what it is today? No.  

The sum of the parts is greater than the parts themselves.

When David embraced our lives, he did so as a ministry.  To embrace our ministry meant that he embraced our family.  He helped us raise our children form the time they were in diapers.  (Yes, he even did those.)  He has lived as their Uncle David and has played a pivotal role in their personal growth and success.  He has responded to every request I have ever asked of him, for the purpose of making certain that when the time came, that which was necessary for ministry to go forth would be in place, ready to function.   He saw us lay our life and our future on the line to see accomplished the task God placed in our hands.  He laid his life on the line to make certain that we could truly accomplish that task.  As a result any success we have in our church, in our ministry and even in our family is a success in which he shares.  He did not need to look for a purpose.  He simply embraced purpose.  If he hadn’t, I do not know where I would be today. That makes him a hero – just as certain as if he had jumped into a burning building to rescue me.  Anyone who lays his life on the line for the life of another is a hero – and deserves a hero’s reward.  I cannot think of our life without David's existence.  Nor would I want to... we are more complete because of his role in our lives.

As you read this, you may be one who is trying to find your destiny.  You may be questioning your value or your purpose in life.  Consider whose life you touch right now.  Consider how their life would be different without you.  Consider further the gift they are to others.  Would they be the same gift without your input into their life?  You may be fulfilling destiny and not even knowing it.