Heroes: Not Just Stories for Children

Dear Acton family, 

I often wonder if people first encountering our language about a hero's journey dismiss it as cute rhetoric aimed at children. It is an admittedly easy thing to do. The word conjures images of comic book characters in capes, superpowers, and plotlines distant from the realities of daily life. 

Here's the thing, though. We don't call them heroes because it's cute, or because it makes a nice slogan on a t-shirt, or even because it motivates them toward better behavior. No...the reason we call them heroes is far more fundamental.

We call your children heroes because it constitutes a fundamental reorientation of their place in the world. 

That's a pretty bold statement, so bear with me for a few moments to explain it. 

See, for most people, the goal in life is happiness -- which we might define as a life of abundance, devoid of struggle or pain. Within this paradigm, the struggles we encounter become cause for bitterness and resentment because they pull us away from the equilibrium that is itself the goal of life. Within such a construct, ultimate success is having enough abundance to retreat from our labor and live a life of leisure. Such is the good life, we are told. 

Not so for the hero. A hero, on the other hand, is motivated by precisely the opposite. The hero is motivated by the contribution he can make to the world around him, one that the world actually needs of him because he has been uniquely gifted and positioned for it. And because of this, the hero does the unthinkable and actually seeks out challenge, intentionally going out of his way to find struggle because he has learned that his most profound gifts, the greatness that is within him, simply will not manifest in the absence of challenge. Embracing the call to a life of meaning and purpose, therefore, inherently means walking head on into the darkness because it is there that we discover our light burns brightest. 

This mindset is embedded in much of what happens here at Acton (campus name). An example you encountered recently is the humble Vision Word that you saw on your learner's Hero Board. What to the untrained eye may have appeared nothing more than an innocent character trait written in youthful handwriting is actually a quiet testimony to something so profound, so deep that most people don't even have eyes to see it. I've personally witnessed heroes as young as six or seven years old make courageous decisions to intentionally seek out challenging situations in order to cultivate growth in that trait: Heroes who are naturally shy choosing to lead studio discussions to practice courage. Heroes who are naturally avoidant choosing to pursue conflict resolution to practice peacemaking. Heroes who naturally don't see beyond their own needs choosing to sacrifice precious minutes of Free Time to clean a friend's table or sweep the floors to practice service to others.

This mindset is utterly foreign, absurd even, to the vast majority of the world. "Let me find the scariest, most difficult thing possible and voluntarily do that." The moment I step off campus, I don't meet too many people who live that way.

I'll leave you with this as an insight into how important I believe this is. This past week I was struck by the depth and complexity of the challenges that await this generation of young people. This feeling lasted only for a moment though, for as soon as it appeared, it was followed by a profound sense of gratitude that the Heroes will be around to lead the charge in finding their solutions.