[My Hero]

At the hight of the apartheid struggle in South Africa - when white South Africans held all the positions of power and black South Africans appeared to be roundly defeated - Bishop Desmond Tutu stood up in a room full of white men in positions of power. Elected a Bishop in the Anglican church in his 50s he was not allowed to vote in South African politics. He wasn't white. He stood up in front of this room full of voting men and he said, "It's not too late. It's not too late to join the right side."

I don't really have a hero. I have a hero-type. I love people who stand up at the wrong moment and say the right thing.

I love when people say something that makes the room grow silent and cold; when people find themselves in the statement.

This is so much more than a good speaker. It takes a certain person - a certain life - to have the moral authority to speak such words.

The Pharisees were always on Jesus' case about the issue of authority. They wanted an establishment to have granted credibility to this preacher - Jesus had the authority of God, and His life to back that up.

Jimmy Carter had the courage to say that he would rather be a good Christian than a good president.

My Godfather apologized in the middle of a sermon for a joke he had made earlier in the day that, upon reconsideration, was probably a little bit racist. He just stopped mid-sentence and began his apology.

Mother Teresa left no sacred cows unscathed as she tore apart the brutal world after it awarded her its Nobel Peace Prize.

Jonathan Graham Pound stood up to the administration and fought for the rights of students on our campus.

Sophie Scholl smoke, drank, and loved Jesus in the same conversation. She was also a communist. She gave her life trying to topple the Nazis - she confessed her guilt in order to refute the idea that the mentally challenged don't deserve to live.

Corrie Ten Boom shook the hand of an SS guard and offered him the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

My mother taught me to love these people. Debbie Airgood is shy and reserved. Throughout our childhood she worked tirelessly to insure that my sister and I would not inherit that quality. She taught us to love the Truth and to speak boldly. She laughs some times at the monsters she has created - but deep down she knows that we will leave our mark on the world.


I don't want to have a lot of money.

I don't want a big house.

I hope that I always remain in weird shadows, off the radar, ministering to people who need to know that Jesus Christ loves EVEN them.

But someday I want to stand up and speak words that will change the world.

I want to be my hero.