Wednesday’s Devotion: Heroes

Joshua 2:3-5 So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Send out the men who came to you, the ones who came to your house, because they have come to spy on the entire land.”  But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. Then she said, “Of course the men came to me. But I didn’t know where they were from.  The men left when it was time to close the gate at dark, but I don’t know where the men went. Hurry! Chase after them! You might catch up with them.”

It’s nighttime.  The camera zooms in on two middle-aged men standing near the end zone of a football field.  They are reminiscing about “the play” – you know the one where one of the men made that heroic, unbelievable last second touchdown  to win the championship for the team.  This play seems to have partly defined that man’s life.  For one brief moment in an ordinarily hum-drum existence, he was a hero to a thousand people.  How many of us fanaticize about having a “hero” moment-- when we save someone’s life or save the company or rescue someone’s pet?  Rahab was a heroine in this scripture – hiding the two men Joshua sent to check out the Promised Land and especially Jericho before he led God’s people on the last leg of their 40-year journey to their new home.  Not all of us will experience a dramatic heroic moment in our lives.  Yet we can in many quiet ways of care and service do much more for the good of others than any one act of heroism.  That’s the stuff a really successful life is made of isn’t it?  “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”  --Colossians 3:12  Hmmm, “holy and dearly loved” sounds even better than “hero” to me.  What do you think?

Holy Lord, there are action heroes and quiet heroes. Help us to be the one you would have us be.  And God, if we do get that one moment, help us not to boast in ourselves but to give you the credit that is due.  We ask in the name of the one who saved not a football game, but the world.  Amen.