Heroic Baobob

1000 Year Old Baobob Tree--Zambia, Africa
photo by Beth Sondermeyer

Tall and stately; strong, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locamotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, look it's the world's favorite superhero.....

Seeing the heroic in someone is not something I typically do with those who are closest to me. I can easily see the Hero in Superman, especially when he takes Lois flying. It's not difficult to see the Heroic in the firefighter on the 11:00 o’clock news who rescues the woman and her child from the building about to collapse; or the police officer who puts himself in harms way to save the life of an innocent bystander. Some people even find little ones playing sports on a Sunday afternoon to be heroic. We have a bit here on the local news station called Eric’s Little Heroes—little kids playing baseball or some other sport. Frankly, I always thought it was inappropriate to call those cute kids heroes—because really, they were not fighting a war in Iraq or anything like that.

Webster’s definition of ‘heroic’
of or characterized by men of godlike strength and courage;
like or characteristic of a hero or his deeds; strong, brave, noble, powerful etc.
of or about a hero and his deeds, epic;
exalted, eloquent, high-flown;
daring and risky;
larger than life-size but less than colossal.

Webster’s definition of ‘hero’
Myth-Legend a man of great strength and courage; favored by the gods, and in part descended from them; often regarded as a half-god and worshipped after his death.
any man admired for his courage, nobility or exploits especially in war
any man admired for his qualities or achievements and regarded as an ideal or model

Today as I had a busy first day back at work and hoped most of the day for someone to come over and rescue me by rubbing my sore neck, I received a photo from one of my team members of their summit on Mt. Kilimajaro. I thought, how extraordinary that they could do this. Kevin, who sent me the photo, said they endured lack of sleep and weight loss and Jeff wrote later “We actually camped in the crater just below the summit. Did not do much sleeping but there were some amazing views and experiences. God was good to me and the team.”

I think this is pretty adventurous, courageous and quite an extraordinary achievement. Later as I reviwed some pictures of other team members, I saw them in this heroic admirable light. They were heroes because of some of the things they did during our time together in Malawi. They seemed 'larger than life' and I admired them for the sacrificial qualities in them that helped make a significant difference in the life of someone else. Hero Tales Follow…..