I met one of my heroes yesterday. The church I attended had a guest speaker I was eager to hear and meet. He has been one of my favorite commentators on Christianity and culture for many years and I have quoted him on numerous occasions. I once wrote him to thank him for being such an important spokesperson for living out the truth in the real world. Here is a man for whom there is no separation of sacred and secular, instead, God has shown him how to think in such a way as to sanctify everything and pass on that ability to others. So it was with great admiration that I went up afterwards to meet him and thank him personally for what his work had meant to me.
I was so focused on this that it caught me off guard when, upon hearing my name, he welcomed me as celebrity, and introduced me to everyone around him as his hero. Apparently my music had had a significant influence on his early years, and that letter I sent so many years ago has been a treasured encouragement ever since. Hearing this made me think of a letter I once received from the late Herb Caen, revered columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, admiring my book that I had sent him because it had a piece about him in it. That was a letter from my hero saying, “Nice job.” I still have that letter in a frame.
So there we were, mutual heroes meeting for the first time.
It makes me wonder now if all our encounters couldn’t be like this, for isn’t there a way that we are all heroes to someone? So when I meet you, I meet a hero. Why are we heroes? It’s not because of us anyway; it’s because of what God has done for us and through us. We have merely received from Him what we have passed on to someone else, but in that exchange, we became important as a conduit of truth and love. So in reality, this wasn’t a mutual appreciation society meeting as much as it was a worship moment — a time to thank God for each other.
Think of who has been an influence in your life. Write them a letter today and tell them so. You never now how important that could be.
And then let’s think of everyone we meet today as if they were a hero … because they are.
John Fischer The Catch 
So what is your hero’s name?
Hello John and Marti – I particularly like today’s Catch. We had a huge community garage sale in our little town of Chewelah, Wa this past Saturday – 42 (and more) houses were involved.. It occurred to me while I was out and about, how much I was enjoying talking with people I didn’t know, as well as those I did. It was sorta like treating these people as heroes. I ate up every word, and can only hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. What an incredible experience it was,
Wish you enough
John, your music was a great influence on my younger years as well, I still remember our youth group had a small modern type hymnal that seemed to be full of your songs (late 70’s). Even when my wife and I were newlyweds (early 80’s) we enjoyed your music. I was just thinking the other day that “Johnny’s Cafe” was kind of out of the box for back then and flew in the face of religious thinking and even now you are still tracking that way 🙂 Naphtali was a favorite as well.
Thank you for being you.
Willie McCovey! And, I got to wave to him and smile at him 😀 He waved and smiled back!
i’ll be happy to add an Amen to this: “And then let’s think of everyone we meet today as if they were a hero … because they are.” As I’m learning from my angry management therapist, it’s good to treat everyone has important, because i’ll add their all God’s children and He died for them, so their pretty important to Him and I need to learn and keep that in my heart…
To be sure, you and Chap are two of my heroes. If I had been there, neither of you would have considered me your hero–but I’m okay with that 🙂