We hear the word "hero" thrown around a lot, but what is the true definition of a hero? Do we even know what it means? It seems to me that in our culture today, we have many celebrities, but very few heroes.
What is a hero? A hero is a person who does something selfless, something sacrificial. A hero is someone who puts the needs of others above his or her own. To quote the character Harvey Dent from "The Dark Night," "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." In other words, you are either a hero or a villain. You decide.
Sometimes heroes are known in their lifetimes, others we recognize as heroes long after they are gone. We sometimes call the latter unsung heroes, the people who did the right thing when no one else would and when no one else noticed. We have a lot of unsung heroes.
Unsung heroes are sometimes wives or husbands. Some are children. Often, they are parents. They can be teachers, coaches, uncles or aunts. An unsung hero is someone who works behind the scenes and doesn't mind if another person gets the credit. But their contributions, though largely unnoticed, make a significant impact.
When we think of the founding of our country, we think of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. But then there was John Adams: he was not tall and imposing like Washington; not a lean and handsome renaissance man like Jefferson; not an inventor like Franklin. Yet he played a key role in the founding of our country. He was assigned the privilege of putting together the Declaration of Independence, and he gave the task to Jefferson, who was known for his writing skills. He was willing to let another man get the glory while he worked quietly behind the scenes. John Adams was a classic unsung hero.
The Bible has unsung heroes, one of whom is Andrew. We hear a lot about Peter, James and John, but we don't know much about Andrew, Peter's brother. Andrew doesn't get a lot of ink in the New Testament, but what we do read about him is significant. Andrew is primarily known as the guy who brought others to Jesus. In fact, when he discovered that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, he went and found Peter and brought him to meet Jesus.
I find this interesting, because Peter was a larger-than-life person. Peter was the kind of guy who, when he entered a room, everyone knew it. He always had something to say. He was a natural leader. And it is very likely that Andrew spent most of his life in Simon Peter's shadow.
How easily Andrew could have kept his newfound knowledge of Jesus to himself and thought, I don't want Peter to get in here. He would probably try to take the whole operation over. No, I am going to keep this one to myself. But Andrew didn't do that. Instead, he brought his brother to Jesus. In fact, every time we read about Andrew, he is bringing someone to Jesus. There was the boy with the loaves and fishes whose lunch Jesus multiplied to feed thousands of people. Then there were some Greek men who came searching for truth.
You could say that Andrew is the patron saint of unsung heroes, the kind of people who are willing to fly under the radar doing what needs to be done. They don't care if you know about them. They just want God to get the glory. And here is the thing we need to remember: If we had more Andrews, we would probably have more Simon Peters.
Edward Kimble was a classic example of an Andrew, an unsung hero. He was a Sunday School teacher and shoe salesman who was deeply concern for a coworker named Dwight. One day, he mustered up the courage to talk to Dwight about his faith in Jesus Christ, and Dwight converted to Christianity on the spot. Dwight later became known as D. L. Moody, the greatest evangelist of his time. We don't know much about Edward Kimble, but we have heard quite a bit about D. L. Moody.
But the story doesn't end there. Years later, when Moody was preaching, a pastor named Frederick Meyer was deeply stirred. As a result of hearing Moody preach, he went into preaching himself. A college student named Wilbur Chapman became a follower of Christ as a result of listening to Meyer's preaching, and he later employed a young ball player to help him with his outreaches. That young boy's name was Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday, who became one of the most well-known evangelists of his day, went to Charlotte, North Carolina and preached. Afterward a group of businessmen asked Sunday if he would return, but when he was unable to, they found another lesser-known evangelist named Mordecai Hamm. On one of the last nights of Mordecai Hamm's evangelistic crusade, a tall, lanky dairy farmer came walking up the aisle. Most people just knew him as Billy Frank. Today we know him as Billy Graham.
Kimble reached Moody, who touched Meyer, who reached Chapman, who helped Sunday, who reached the businessmen in Charlotte, who invited Mordecai Hamm, who then reached Billy Graham. It all started with the simple witness of Edward Kimble, an unsung hero.
There are many unsung heroes who are unknown to us but are completely known to God. We would never have D. L. Moodys if we didn't have Edward Kimbles. And we never would have Billy Grahams if we didn't have Mordecai Hamms. It doesn't matter if you are a hero or an unsung hero. Just don't be a zero. Make your life count. Make sure you are living your life well. Because you don't decide when it starts or when it ends – but you do decide what happens in between.