Everyday Hero

Most of us don’t feel very heroic. We roll out of bed Monday, put our face on, and trudge off to work where we spend the morning trying to remember what we were avoiding doing on Friday. Then we find ourselves daydreaming… Flames leap from a building. “Sparky is still inside!” a lady screams as neighbours restrain her. You don your cape and leap over a tall hedge, crashing through the front door, to emerge with Sparky in your arms. You hand the poodle to his thankful owner and the house collapses in flames. The poodle breeders’ association awards you a pink ribbon and you hit the cover of Heroes Magazine.
Then your boss shakes you awake. “Hey Sparky,” he says. And you remember, ‘I’m just an ordinary person.’

Our Laugh Again Hero of the day is an ordinary person. Toni-Marie Norman from Richmond, British Columbia wrote to tell me her story. “One night I was outside enjoying a cup of coffee on the deck of my second floor apartment. Suddenly I noticed a big burly man coming across the lawn headed for the apartment below. He began hollering. Then I heard a scuffle and cries of help. ‘Are you okay?’ I shouted.

‘She’s fine,’ the attacker replied. So I leaned over the railing and yelled, ‘I know it was an intruder. Help is on the way.’ The crook walked out onto the deck below me. I grabbed a heavy hanging flowerpot and waited. He was looking for me, but he didn’t think to look up. I raised the pot high, aimed carefully, and let it go. The flowerpot hit him – smack! – on the head. When the police arrived he was still a bit wobbly. I was named ‘The Flowerpot Lady’ from that night on. I also made a new friend and found that my neighbour below was a Christian, too.” I salute you, Toni-Marie. Sometimes it takes less than we think to make a big difference. If you doubt me, here are six ideas to help you be a true hero this very day:

1) Encourage someone
2) Show hospitality
3) Put others first
4) Be kind
5) Listen
6) Simply be faithful. 1 Peter 4:8-10 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly…Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.”

Live this way and there will be nothing ordinary about you. In fact, you’ll likely find out that God delights in using cracked pots like me, and like you. And sometimes, He uses flowerpots too.