Hero of the Day

I've been watching for heroes, every day and extra-ordinary (wonder what the difference is, really).  Who's yours today?  Add them to the comments and maybe we'll name enough to have a hero of the day all the way through the sermon series that starts tomorrow.
     The Kennebec Journal, our local newspaper, ran one of those thought-provoking juxstapositions of articles last Monday.  Both articles were rare glimpses of hero making in progress.

Kim Jong Un was the first article's subject.  His dad has named him to be the next leader of North Korea's dynastic government.  In order to actually reach that status, though, he has to distinguish himself as a hero.  A massive publicity campaign is marketing him amid firework spectacles, patriotic music, dancers, and military parades.  "Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that the parade included three never-before-shown types of missiles and launching devices."  (AP article 10-11-10)  Kim Jong Un even has a new, heroic nickname, "Young General." Every hero needs an evil adversary it seems, and his is the U.S. the "People's Army's enemy."  By rallying the troups, military and popular behind him, North Korea's leader in the making, the newest four star general, begins chapter three of the family legend that is North Korea's governing myth.  Soon we should be hearing divinity stories like those that legitimized his father and grandfather's power.

On the other side of the world, recorded in the KJ article directly below, 33 Chilean miners were arguing about who would be the last to rise to the surface after two months in their underground prison.  It ended up being foreman Luis Arzua. The miners prepared for their big debut on the world stage quite differently than Mr. Kim seems to have.   The 34th member of their captive community helped, "God has never left us down here."  Some came to know God in new ways, others made commitments to hard changes in their lives, all contracted to equally share any profits from their story.

There is authenticity in acting heroically rather than trying to become a hero. It makes me think about how often Christianity turns into a hero making machine rather than a heroically inclined, even underground, community.