


They are some of my favorite stories. Although they seldom make the headlines, if you look hard enough through your newspaper, or actually stay awake for the second half of the evening news, you will hear them.
The passers-by who jumped into an icy river to rescue a family trapped in their overturned car, the family who delivers Thanksgiving dinners to others laid off in our recession, the construction worker volunteering time to help rebuild a tornado devastated town, and the retired gentleman visiting shut-ins at the local retirement home. Some are more dramatic than others. Who will ever forget the passengers of flight 93 on that infamous September morning, foiling a terrorist plot and saving countless lives while giving of their own? And then we have the more bizarre, like the motorist who recently stopped his car in the middle of interstate traffic to rescue a group of ducklings (I’m not sure if that qualifies as heroic or stupid
 
.
Regardless of the context, they capture our attention and force us to ask the question: ‘What would I do?’
What would I do if I saw a need but responding put me at risk, made me uncomfortable … interfered with my day? What would I do if I didn’t feel qualified, experienced, or strong enough? What would I do if nobody would notice if I just kept going?
Of course the truth is all of us have ‘just kept going’ at one time or another. That’s what makes hero stories so heartwarming, because for whatever reason, under whatever circumstances, some chose to not ‘just keep going’. Someone chose to take a risk, to change their stars, to not settle for the status quo.
Now if you were to talk to those heroes, they would likely tell you that they too have had more than their own share of not stopping experiences. So what made the difference in that moment?
My suspicion was that there was an experience of transcendence, of just being in the moment. Whatever was happening, they recognized that this moment was of greater significance than all the other pressures of life and so they simply had to act.
That, I believe, is living the heroic life: that living in the moment, that choice to make the place that you are right now the place that you draw a line and you act. As you do, God will begin revealing your own heroic path to you.
And who knows, you may stubble upon some ducklings that need rescuing.
To the King,
David
If you are ready to start charting your own heroic path, please visit us at www.yourheroicpath.com. Watch our promo video, leave us your story, or order your own copy of The Heroic Path – Charting Your Course out of Failure and into Purposeful Living.

One of my favorite places in the early morning hours is a farm pond that we have in the middle of our small acreage. As I sat out there this morning, preparing for my day and trying to reconnect my heart to that of my King, my eyes were captured by the sight of a handful of insects. I’m not really sure what they are. About the size of a fruit fly, these micro creatures tend to swarm in tight-knit bundles. I watched as their unrelenting acrobatics produced a dance reminiscent of a great ballet, in and out of the group, swerving, diving, and banking with perfect precision.
The thought struck me: just like me, God created these pollen sized performers. How did He even knit those tiny wings on, or wire their microscopic nervous systems. It didn’t matter; I was just enjoying their beauty, their glory. And they were living in their glory. That dance was their heroic path.
Too often we equate heroism with great acts of valor. And it is true; heroes tend to generate great acts of valor. But it is not the act that makes them a hero. It is the heroic path that they have been following all of their lives that naturally leads to the consequences we read about in the newspapers.
Each of us likewise, of much greater value than those insects that I observed, has a unique dance that is ours alone. It was placed in us and planned out for us from the moment of our conception. Maybe it is leading a squadron of Army Rangers, or orchestrating a Broadway musical. It could be equipping men or women or children to live their own lives of greatness, or simply holding the hand of a dying man as he steps into an entirely new realm of eternity. Maybe your heroic path leads you to demonstrate unconditional love to someone who is not so easy to love, or bring a smile to the face of one who has forgotten what laughter was. Or it may simply be dancing with others who dance, producing your own great ballet.
I don’t know what your heroic path looks like, but I can tell you what a heroic path looks like: it looks like a man living the life that is his to live. No one else’s, just his.
If you are ready to start living this heroic life, I am just getting ready to release a book to help you find that. You can watch our Heroic Path trailer here or you can pre-order The Heroic Path here. For a limited time we are offering these for only $11.99 each. It will be in the mail to you in just a few weeks.
Thanks, and never stop exploring your own heroic path.
To the King,
David