What Makes a Hero?

Somehow, the mail we've been receiving, the devotionals we receive, the books in our house, keep shoving me toward the concept of "what makes a hero". I'm currently trying to unload our vast collection of books, and I keep running into biographies and going, "I need to keep that and read it." I also voraciously read current books, magazines, etc., and I noticed I am particularly drawn to autobiography, personal testimony stories, etc. I read one just yesterday in a secular magazine in which a mom was queried about her marriage, her career, her children, etc., and it was just fascinating to me. I finally came to and realized, "note to self: you like biography."

Why? Why is memoir and biography such a fascinating genre? And what does this have to do with heroes?

We read biography to read about our heroes. We want to find out how our hero ticked. What made him tick, what made him want to survive, what kept him going, what drove him. These are human concerns. This is the human condition: the will to survive. Hence our need to read biography and memoir/autobiography.

Memoir is a genre that is definitely popular right now. In fact, I think it has seen its apex, because unfortunately memoirs are all starting to sound the same right now, at least in book review magazines. They all sound the same: "a harrowing tale of abuse, terror, and redemption." Trust me. I've read a lot of them, and they are all the same. Celebrity reveals details of horrible childhood. Celebrity grows up and becomes a celebrity. Celebrity falls into the ditch of addiction, alcoholism, crime, etc. Celebrity goes to rehab and figures it all out. All is forgiven. Book gets written. Film at 11.

I'm not kidding! I've read plenty of them!

So anyway, today in the mail we received Randy Alcorn's excellent newsletter and what is the subject, but .....biography. Specifically, he writes about Charles Spurgeon. In the newsletter he says that he believes Spurgeon may have the most writings in print of anyone on the planet. I couldn't believe it! I've read some of Spurgeon's books but did not realize this about him. I didn't know he was so prolific! Did you? Now my interest is piqued. What did he write? What did he have to say? When did he live? How long did he live? Where did he live? What made him tick? And so on.

Bottom line: don't call me the next few days. I will be checking out all the Spurgeon biographies and reading up on my Spurgeon. Need to find out about this guy. Will let you know what all the fuss is about :). He's probably my next hero.

Love Lisa