We All Need Heroes

Why would we regard someone as a hero? Perhaps our first heroes are people that are able to do something that we admire as really amazing or wonderful. Often we view these people as so far advanced that we think we would never be able to achieve the same thing ourselves. In a way these are easy or impossible heroes - because we don’t even have to think about trying to do what they have done.

If we are lucky we become aware of other more ordinary people who become heroes to us in more personal ways. We will never forget the teacher or the person that went out of their way to help us at difficult or critical times in our lives. I will always remember the neighbour that took me on long country walks as a teenager when I was devastated by my dad’s death. I will always remember my dad’s friend who committed himself to becoming a lifelong friend to me. Real heroes are ordinary people who go outside their comfort zones to help others when they see pain or a need. Eventually we realize that there are times when everybody needs a hero and that we can be that hero even though we are only ordinary people

Other may be heroes that we have never met personally. Who do you admire and aspire to be like? Having heroes enlarge our vision of our own possibilities, and give us the courage and motivation to give of ourselves. After all, if they were only human and if they were able to do it, we can at least get some way towards what they achieved.

There is a great need for us to be a hero in the lives of others.” Gordon B Hinckley said “There are so many boys and girls who fail in school merely for want of a little personal attention and encouragement. There are so many elderly people who live in misery and loneliness and fear, for whom a simple conversation would bring a measure of hope and brightness.” Unfortunately our natural tendency is to be selfish and focus on our own needs only. Neil A Maxwell said “Selfishness is no more than self destruction in slow motion”. Winston Churchill said “By what we get we make a living. By what we give we make a life”.

I am not very good at suffering and there are times when I feel hard done to. I stand in awe at the patient courage of many elderly friends who never even mention their medical problems even though I know they are in great pain and distress. There are also those who privately give dedicated love and service to their God as well as to their fellow men.

John Moyle

John Moyle was born in 1808. He was a convert to the Church who left his home in England and travelled to the Salt Lake Valley as part of a handcart company. He built a home for his family in a small town a valley away from Salt Lake City. John was an accomplished stonecutter and, because of this skill, was asked to work on the Salt Lake Temple. It appears that his “wages” consisted only of his board and lodgings while he was actually at the construction site

Every Monday John left home at two o’clock in the morning and walked six hours in order to be at his post on time. On Friday he would leave his work at five o’clock in the evening and walk almost until midnight before arriving home. He did this year after year.

One day, while he was doing his chores at home, a cow kicked him in the leg, causing a compound fracture. With very limited medical resources available, the only option was to amputate the broken leg. So John’s family and friends strapped him onto a door and, with a bucksaw, cut off his leg a few inches from the knee.

In spite of the crude surgery, the leg started to heal. Once John could sit up in bed, he began carving a wooden leg with an ingenious joint that served as an ankle to an artificial foot. Walking on this device was extremely painful, but John did not give up. First he walked in the house. Then he walked around the yard. Finally he ventured out about his property. When he felt he could stand the pain, he strapped on his leg, walked the 22 miles to the Salt Lake Temple, climbed up on the scaffolding, and with a chisel in his hand he continued his work hammering into the granite the declaration "Holiness to the Lord." that stands today as a golden marker to all who visit the Salt Lake Temple. The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to complete. John died 4 years before it was finished.

John did not do this for the praise of man. Neither did he shirk what he regarded as his sacred duty, even though he had every reason to do so. He did it because he loved his Saviour and his God.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A053foVUVmI

John’s hero was Jesus Christ.

One of the most popular and attractive philosophies of men is to live life your own way, do your own thing, be yourself, don’t let others tell you what to do. But the Lord said, “I am the way.” He said, “Follow me.” He said, “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”

Don’t for a moment think you can’t. We might think we can’t really follow Him because the standard of His life is so astonishingly high as to seem unreachable. We might think it is too hard, too high, too much, beyond our capacity, at least for now. Don’t ever believe that. While the standard of the Lord is the highest, don’t ever think it is only reachable by a select few who are most able.

In this singular instance life’s experience misleads us. In life we learn that the highest achievements in any human endeavour are always the most difficult and, therefore, achievable only by a select few who are most able. The higher the standard, the fewer can reach it.

But that is not the case here because, unlike every other experience in this life, this is not a human endeavour. It is, rather, the work of God. It is God’s work and it is His “glory . . . to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” There is nothing else like it. Not anywhere. Not ever.

No institution, plan, program, or system ever conceived by men has access to the redeeming and transforming power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, while the Lord’s invitation to follow Him is the highest of all, it is also achievable by everyone, not because we are able, but because He is, and because He can make us able too. “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind [everyone, living and dead] may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”

The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. “There is an opposition in all things,” everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier?

He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it.

There is only one way to happiness and fulfilment. Jesus Christ is the Way. Every other way, any other way, whatever other way is foolishness.

I bear record of Him, even Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of the living God, He is the Bread of Life, He is the Truth, He is the Resurrection and the Life, He is the Saviour and the Light of the World. He is the Way, the only Way.

May we have the good sense to follow Him. In His holy name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

[Based on a talk by Lawrence Corbridge]