We can tell much about a person by listening to who they admire - who are their heroes? Historian Will Durant reveals the spirit of our age in the opening chapter of his book The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time. Durant says that we live “in an age that would level everything and reverence nothing… .” This seems to flow from the democratic dogma within America - a dogma which has leveled not only voters, but all leaders as well. Durant, in commenting on what real history of man is, says that history is much more than elections, battles, or the ways of life of the common man. Rather it is the “lasting contributions made by geniuses to the sum of human civilization and culture.”

“The history of France is not, if one may say it with all courtesy, the history of the French people; the history of those nameless men and women who tilled the soil, cobbled the shoes, cut the cloth, and peddled the goods (for those things have been done everywhere and always) - the history of France is the record of her exceptional men and women, her inventors, scientists, statesmen, poets, artists, musicians, philosophers, and saints, and of the additions which they made to the technology and wisdom, the artistry and decency, of their people and mankind.”

This is not only true of France; it is true of the world. Our history is properly the history of our great men. We see men standing on the edge of knowledge and holding a light a little farther ahead; men carving marble into noble forms; making a type of language from music; men molding people into better instruments of greatness; men dreaming of finer lives - and really living them.

To consider such great men and almost watch them by studying them is a privilege God has given us. To watch them work the work that consumes them, is to kindle within us a flame of hope and dreams.

The Word is filled with heroes which the Lord has obviously directed us to, in order to cause us to reach upward and move forward. History is not complete. It continues to be written. I believe it will find some of the great among us. I want to change the world and bless its inhabitants - and I feel good about trying.