John Glenn died yesterday at age 95.

I’d just sat down on the exercise bike at the gym in the afternoon when I looked up at the TV screen to see the announcement. Interestingly, I caught the very beginning of an hour long tribute to the famous astronaut on one of the all news stations … the exact amount of time I spend on the bike. I was able to read the closed caption dialogue as the report covered an enormous amount of ground, including pictures and video footage and interviews with other astronauts, historians and legislators. After all, Senator Glenn led a remarkable life well beyond his signature achievement in 1962.

As I pushed hard to get my cardio in while watching the report, I also had cause to reflect on a life like Glenn’s, why he was acclaimed as a hero, and what that has to say to us today.

My dad knew Glenn. They were in flight school together as young marine corps officers, flying out of Corpus Christi, Texas, before shipping off to the Pacific Theater in World War II. While both my dad and Glenn were originally assigned to fly transports, Glenn switched to fighters and eventually flew 59 combat missions. My dad flew the big twin engine C 46 “Commando” which brought troops and supplies into fighting areas in the South Pacific while bringing wounded out. Glenn went on to fly many combat missions in jet fighters in the Korean War and ended as a highly decorated combat pilot, and later, a test pilot. Of course, he later was chosen to be one of the original seven Mercury astronauts. He flew the third mission on Friendship 7 and was the first American to orbit the earth. He returned to a hero’s welcome and is one of the most celebrated figures of the 20th century. Later, he served as a four term Democratic Party Senator from his home state of Ohio and returned to space as a 77 year old, flying in the shuttle Discovery. John Glenn was always considered one of the most humble and gracious of people and followed a code he said he’d acquired from living a Norman Rockwell like life in Ohio as a boy growing up. While we lost one of the good guys yesterday, we can nod our heads in appreciation for his contribution to our heritage and for modeling a number of values clear heads must recognize as good.

As I continued my workout and watched the tribute, I also reflected that the previous day was the 75th anniversary of the most defining moment in our nation’s history in the 20th century. In fact, it was probably one of only a handful of singularly defining moments in the entire history of our nation, the early morning surprise attack on U.S. military forces at and near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. A nation largely slumbering and trying to claw its way out of the Great Depression awakened to realize that our survival was now threatened and we had no choice but to respond. And, respond we did. Millions of American men and women entered the service to fight the scourge of totalitarianism that was completely antithetical to our fundamental concepts of liberty. We now refer to that generation, most of whom are gone now, as the Greatest Generation. They are called that for a reason.

Which brings to mind the concept of heroism.

Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define it? What do we think about it? Is our collective understanding of the concept evolving? If so, why and from what to what?

Was John Glenn a hero for being strapped into a small metal capsule atop a giant rocket that was little better than a huge bomb? It turns out all did not work on that flight and there was a time of doubt whether he would return safely. Reportedly, his heart rate didn’t change and he sang while waiting to see if he would splash down safely. His president … our president, the youthful and charismatic John Kennedy … had promised not long before that an American would walk on the moon and return safely by the end of the decade. A preposterous statement at the time as we really had not even test fired an effective rocket. Certainly John Glenn must have thought he was doing his duty to help our country meet such a goal and stay ahead of our enemy, the communist and totalitarian Soviet Union.

Most of those men (and women) enlisting and responding to draft notices in the early 1940s felt the call of duty and knew it was distinctly possible they would not return. Their parents and loved ones knew this too.

What is that call? What is that duty and what does that have to do with heroism?

I know we can probably do a really good study of the origin of heroism in Greek mythology but I don’t want to go there. I’d rather keep it relatively contemporary and not overly technical.

To me, heroism is something extraordinary, sometimes performed by quite ordinary people. When observed, it sets the person and action apart. It stops us in our tracks and forces us to reflect on what we just witnessed or heard about. We realize that we are witnesses to something out of our normal frame of reference. Simply, the action defies the instinct for self preservation or our desire to be safe and secure. The action requires great risk to life and the motive arrives from somewhere we’re not commonly in touch with.

From somewhere and maybe even in an instant, the man or woman resolves in an act of will to repress a lifetime of conditioning that says care for self at all costs. Instead, choosing to engage a threat that can seem overwhelming to reasonable people. And, they are heroic because the action is intended to bring about a greater good … something beyond the self.

I see some tremendous value in recognizing the importance of heroism. I also see some problems.

Let’s look at the problems first.

For starters, we can overvalue heroes and turn them into idols. And, idols are not good. They aren’t healthy. They distract us from the things that are really important and strip the hero of his or her humanity. While the hero can point to virtues that make us better, they are not a substitute and do not excuse us from paying attention in an honest fashion to our own journey.

Then, we can overuse the term, thereby devaluing its worthiness. As in all teachers are heroes or all firefighters and police are heroes or all members of our armed forces are heroes. People are not heroes because of their job or profession. People are heroes because of some action they engage. Now, some jobs or professions may provide greater opportunity for heroism by their nature, but I don’t believe we should use the term too loosely.

A third problem is that our current cultural trend is to something we can call post-modern … a label that is characterized by moral relativism or the desire to make every value nearly equal. In this vein, we give rise to the anti-hero and seek to diminish the value of the hero. Good necessarily must be shown as bad and bad as good. Traditional heroic figures are now presented as not only flawed but deeply flawed, with their flaws on full display. The message is clear. There can be no clear standards of good and bad … only struggles for some kind of dignity, always unfulfilled. Every “good” intention merely masks the real issue which is that despair is just around the corner. Post apocalyptic films or the deconstruction of something like the American intelligence community into constant conspiracy theories are examples. And so on with Batman vs. Superman, Breaking Bad (disclaimer: I understand it’s a highly respected show that I’ve never seen but remain aware of its story line) or the constant drumbeat of movie leads who completely lack virtue. Because, of course, virtue (a driving force for heroism) is anathema. Mankind is perfectible on its own and doesn’t need external standards to do so.

On the other hand …

What a wonderful thing to have examples of actions and people who help us to see that we are not the center of the universe. That there is something greater than I. People who act selflessly for the good of another at great personal risk. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one but this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus is referring to something we call agape love, where we put the needs of others above our own. It is unconditional and sacrificial. That deserves repeating and thinking about: Love that is unconditional and sacrificial.

Which brings me back to John Glenn and something about him that I see as a thread going through many heroes. They are not boastful and are largely reluctant to think they did something special. While others look at them with awe, they are not inwardly focused, thereby they do not see themselves as others see them. This innate humility is a characteristic of one who lives with the virtue of agape love.

There’s a large street on Marine Corps Camp Pendleton named Basilone after John Basilone. If you want, google his story. In recognition for his heroism on Guadalcanal early in WWII, Basilone was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Ever humble, he did not particularly like the limelight and eventually requested reassignment back into a fighting unit. He was killed leading his men, just two hours after arriving on the terrible beaches of Iwo Jima. He was the only Marine in the war to receive both the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross. Countless numbers of the men he led credited him for saving their lives.

I don’t think heroes ever look at their actions as extraordinary and in that way they are quite special. In our present culture, we think everything is extraordinary and award the most trivial or base actions with notoriety and riches. Movie, TV, and music celebrities shout out ME, ME and then figure it’s critical we all know their opinion on everything.

The hero shouts nothing but quietly does his or her duty as if it’s the most natural thing. John Glenn straps himself on top of something akin to a bomb with a distinct possibility that it will blow up and just as quietly deals with the fact that his heat shield is busted while reentering the atmosphere. John Basilone just re-ups because it’s the right thing to do and “I’m not really all that good at being a hero anyway,” so goes out and does the same thing again, this time paying the ultimate price.

Most of us will never be faced with a decision on whether to act heroically, although if some of us do, I imagine we’ll take on the threat without thinking twice.

As fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter said to Glenn while he was strapping himself into that tiny metal capsule, “Godspeed, John.”

Yes, Godspeed John Glenn. Thank you for your life and for giving us an example of something really fine.

Lord: Thank you for giving us examples of sacrifice in the cause of things greater than ourselves. Help us to clear away so much mud today that only fosters confusion where clarity is called for. Yes, most of know we are flawed and the best among us seek to overcome them. However, we also recognize that the celebration of those flaws is to deny the most important of eternal truths: Your love for us. And, we can live a life accordingly, having little or no need to call attention to our own selves for some kind of approval. Instead, when some of us are faced with a significant challenge, we just do the right thing with no thought as to its impact on us. That is the breeding ground for heroism and we are thankful for it. Amen.