“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength
but by the strength of his heart.”
When members of First Baptist Church in Boerne, Texas, heard the recordings of radio transmissions from a Southwest Airlines pilot who made a harrowing emergency landing in Philadelphia in mid-April, they recognized the voice as one of their own. Tammie Jo Shults—the pilot who guided Flight 1380 to the ground on April 17th after a midflight engine failure shot debris through a window, killing one passenger and injuring seven others.
Tammie is part of the church family at this Texas church. Longtime friend and administrative assistant in the church office, Staci Thompson, said, “When we heard the voice” in media replays of cockpit recordings, “it was just like talking on the phone. That’s what she sounds like.” The church was “impressed” but not “shocked” at reports Shults, 56, landed the plane safely after a 20,000-foot drop in six minutes, then walked down the aisle hugging passengers. Social media reports by surviving passengers hailed Shults as having “nerves of steel” and being “a true American hero.”
Tammie Shults’ “biggest goal” amid the emergency landing and subsequent media coverage is to share her faith and have it open people’s eyes to how great a God we have. But this isn’t new for her, she’s long evidenced a heart for the Lord, evangelism and ministries of compassion. She’s provided housing for hurricane victims and widows, helps care for her disabled younger sister and her husband’s elderly mother, and shares her faith in Christ with co-captains on Southwest flights.
In a feature article on Shults, The Dallas Morning News seemed almost bewildered by her Christian testimony. “It seems that nearly everyone in Boerne has a Tammie Jo story,” the newspaper stated, “and taken together, they paint a picture of a woman almost too impossibly caring, too impossibly devoted to her community.” As media reports proliferate about Shults’ heroism, Thompson said, “she wants people to know that God was there with her” on Flight 1380, “that he helped her in getting control of that plane and landing that plane. “It was because of Him, not her,” Thompson said. “She was just a teammate and a co-captain. He was the captain.”
There’s no question – Tammie Jo Shults is a hero! But she was a hero long before she safely piloted Flight 1380 and prevented a tragic disaster. Crisis, trials, disasters…even stress only reveal what we already have in us.
Several new “hero” movies will be released by Hollywood this summer, but they’re just stories. Too often the actors who play heroic roles are terrible people that one would never want to associate with in real life. The same is true of many that our culture dubs “heroes.” Think about it. What’s truly heroic about being able to throw a ball or hitting a home run? What’s heroic about being rich, talented, intelligent, strong…or attractive?
God’s Word has a totally different perspective of what it means to be a hero. The high virtues of the Christian hero, by contrast, have precious little to do with ability or accomplishment. Scripture teaches that the first and highest standard of a Christian hero is a passion for repentance. A hero is the one who knows from top to bottom that he or she is not a hero, moving through each day fully aware of their own moral failures and of a need for total dependence on the grace of God in all its manifestations. A hero must know, increasingly, how weak and needy he or she is.
A true hero is not about the business of making a name for themselves, but of lifting others up and magnifying the name of Christ. True heroism begins with Christlike character. It’s evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit.
Like our greatest hero, King Jesus, the Christian hero forgives. It’s easier to do a good deed for others, than it is to forgive an evil deed done to us. The former flows easily from a high view of the self, “I can do this giving thing for you, because I have so much to give.” The latter flows more from a low view of the self, “I can forgive this wrong done to me because I know my need for forgiveness for the wrongs I’ve done to others.”
Heroism is a Robertson McQuilkin, who made a heroic decision after he discovered that his wife, Muriel, had Alzheimer’s. At the time, he was president of Columbia International University. “As she needed more and more of me, I wrestled daily with the question of who gets me full time–Muriel or Columbia Bible College and Seminary. When the time came the decision was firm. It took no great calculation. I was a master of integrity. Had I not promised forty-two years before, ‘in sickness and in health…til death do us part?’ This was no grim duty to which I was stoically resigned, however. It was only fair. She had, after all, cared for me for almost four decades with marvelous devotion; now it was my turn.”
You don’t have to fly a jet and keep it from crashing to be a hero. Wonderfully, each of us, by God’s grace, can be a hero…to someone. A Dad can be a hero to his family by exhibiting patience and self-control when it’s tempting to lash out. A Mom can be a hero to her children by praising and encouraging when she’d rather vent and complain about her lot in life. A single can be a hero by being content in the place God has placed them, gracious rather than groaning. Each of us can be a hero where we work and live simply by caring, by thinking of others before ourselves. By putting ourselves out rather than being put out.
Yes, Tammie Jo Shults is a hero. You, though, can be one too and you don’t even have to fly a jet to do it!
Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.
