Monday, August 26, 2013
354 - Authority and the Secret of Greatness
Spirituality Column #354
August 27, 2013
Current in
Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Authority and the Secret of Greatness
By Bob Walters
A
huffy and sarcastic interviewer recently asked bestselling author Eric Metaxas how
he could write a book titled “Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness.”
“Why
not write about three men and three women?” was the male interviewer’s
patronizingly indignant point. It is in
the cultural bellwether of that shallow, politically correct question that the
importance of Metaxas’s latest work is clearly revealed.
On
its surface “Seven Men” is a brief (192 pages) biographical work highlighting
the personal and secular sacrifices and historic contributions of seven Godly,
Christian men – George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) and Chuck
Colson.
But
at its core, brilliantly outlined in the book’s introduction, is this vital message:
Western culture in general and American culture in particular has lost perspective
of what a hero actually is and, fundamentally, what “manhood” actually is. Greatness, Metaxas asserts, begins, resides
and flourishes in respecting the authority of God and serving others. The example of these seven men extends to
their “surrendering themselves to a higher purpose, of giving away something
they might have kept.”
Washington
refused the kingship of the United States of America in order that the nation
might remain free. Wilberforce gave up
social position in early 19th century England for “Two Great
Objects”: (1) to end the slave trade and (2) the “Reformation of Manners.” That
second object may look laughable, but what Wilberforce accomplished was to
imbue Western society with the Christian, moral imperative of helping the weak.
Liddell
was the subject of the movie “Chariots of Fire,” giving up a sure gold medal in
the 100-meter dash in the 1924 Paris Olympics because he would not run on
Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Liddell unexpectedly
won the 400-meter race later that week and worked the rest of his life as a
Christian missionary in China.
Bonhoeffer
was the German theologian who felt God’s call to return to Germany in 1939 –
from the safety of America – to oppose Hitler.
He was martyred in a prison camp three weeks before Hitler’s death.
Brooklyn
Dodger general manager Branch Rickey’s careful selection of Jackie Robinson (both were
devout Christians) to break baseball’s color barrier led to unprecedented
strides in American civil rights. Pope
John Paul II survived an assassination attempt.
Chuck Colson, complicit in some of the nastiest political shenanigans in
U.S. history in the Watergate scandals of the Nixon White House, founded Prison
Ministry Fellowship.
Metaxas
helps us see the sacrifice of Jesus in these men, and the overarching, critical
importance of recognizing and obeying God’s authority in a man’s life.
It’s
a book I want my sons to read.
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