why do we do this?

when i read many times i find that i want to identify with the hero's i am currently reading. this is very true in the moments i'm in the word of god. i read about the greats of the stories of old and how courageous, how wonderful, how confident or how awesome their stories were. my fantasy comes to an end on most occasions when i see the biblical greats because of their enormous and awesome achievements and the final result that god had orchestrated. i casually dismiss myself and my ability to render the fruit of that magnitude. am i alone? i don't think so. so many of the heroics accomplishments overshadow in great length the shortcomings of the individual; or the everyday struggles that kept the hero on the road to pursue greatness. the biblical accounts and the interpretations are no different than our present day fanatical aspirations. we see the hero, we see what he has done, we see his accomplishments both on his own and the motivation for others in a group effort, and are in awe of the possibilities of us ever reaching that status. this is the same kind of glamorization or praise we give to celebrities. we reinforce this with the thought of, "i could never be like him/her." why do we do this? well, i think we base our idea of a hero on the wrong side of the scale. we hail a heros as those with no problems, or no issues. this is simply unfair to all those who are not hero's but wish to be. there is never a promise to any individual that life is getting easier. i, like many, some of whom probably have it worse than me, have experienced this reality. we forget that those little childhood stories overlook the serious issues of those characters who had daily struggles with their imperfections. it's like hearing your whole life that christopher columbus was this great man of many great accomplishments. you read about it in all the elementary history books and then are exposed to the fact, later on in life, that this man was a hero only in his departure to find a new world never explored before by the modern man. i have read some pretty graphic and real accounts from his own journals of his nature which would categorize him as everything but a great hero. so my point is remembering that shortcomings are evident in every individual who have been enveloped in the flesh. except one, of course. what i believe to be of heroic nature is one who has lived as though he can not make it one more day without the living god. matthew 5 and the beatitudes are the description of a hero. it's not rags to riches, its not what i can do to achieve status, it's not what will make my name great that prospers that man. it's the one who remains poor in spirit, one who mourns because of his grief, one who is gentle or humble, one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, one who is merciful, one who is pure in heart, one who is a peacemaker, one who has been persecuted for righteousness, one who is insulted and falsely accused for the sake of jesus' name. look those words up that are in bold from this text in a study of the new testament greek you will find a very clear definition of what jesus is stating as how god sees a hero. the old testament is full of people who are great hero's of the faith. but look closer and you will find in their life they struggled with if not the same struggles we encounter on a daily basis, more than what we encounter. they are heros because they continued to run back to their maker and state that they are incapable on their own without him. we are broken and all of creation knows this.