Word: Hebrews

First off, last week I made a shameless plea for folks to share my Word project via Twitter, Facebook and whatever other social devices you use (that includes talking to a live person using your mouth to form words). Thanks to all of you who did some social sharing! I'm really hoping to build some momentum as we hit our Biblical home stretch, so please consider sharing my Word design page with your friends, enemies and everyone in between. Enough with that, let's Word....

Spoiler alert! It's not about beer.

I was pretty excited when I got to the book of Hebrews, because I though it was gonna be about a guy who makes his own craft beer. Alas, that is not what Hebrews is about. There's a famous part in Hebrews 11 where the author gives a roll call of a bunch of faith superheroes and that is what caught my design eye this week.

Just wanted to remind you how much you suck by dropping this list of awesome people.

I remember feeling frustrated by this passage when I was younger. I always read it as "Here's a bunch of people with superfaith. They are awesome. Much more awesome than you will ever be, so don't even think about it. Aim low. You might, might, be able to be the one that gets the privilege of washing their capes in heaven." But here's the thing, if I really look back to all these "heroes of faith," I find out that they didn't always act like superheroes. Noah got drunk and naked before passing out. Abraham lied and said his wife was actually his sister and let her be taken into the Pharaoh's house (probably a harem!). David murdered a guy so he could take his wife. And Samson? We've already covered the fact that he is a complete moron.

Crazy Belief

In the first verse of the chapter, we're given the clearest definition of faith found in the Bible.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

That is what sets the stage for the hero roll call. As I look through the passage again with that first verse in mind, it seems like the thing that made all those peeps heroes were that, at some point, they believed what God said even though it didn't make sense. God told Noah to build a gigantic ark because he was going to cover the entire earth with water. God told timid Moses to go up against a powerful nation and demand that his people be freed. God told young, teenage, acne-faced David to go up against warrior giant. Despite the odds against them, they all said "that sounds crazy, but if God said do it, I'll do it."

Let's recap... Heroes are not flawless. Sometimes they act like idiots. But sometimes believe God when it doesn't make sense. Sounds like there's a chance for us to be heroes too.