Last weekend started with a wet and windy Friday night. I was exhausted from work and the week. No way was I going out. I dedicated the evening to me, the TV, and a bowl of butter popcorn. Luckily, my housemate has a hard drive which rivals Netflix and I had a huge selection to choose from. Unfortunately, this housemate also has actually watched most of these movies. We settled on something a little bit older because, let’s face it, they don’t make ’em like they used to. I have a secret love affair with 90s hip-hop and neither of us had watched this film.
It was Coach Carter.
Coach Carter tells us a story about a man who returns to his former school to teach basketball. The basketball team is on a losing streak and the school is infamous for its lack of discipline and failure rate in the end of year exams. Coach Carter brings back discipline and respect within the school. He teaches the boys team work. When he doesn’t see their school results improve he closes the gym (amongst a lot of opposition) and cancels matches until the school work improves. The man changes the destiny of the members in his basketball team. He teaches them character and through doing this changes the lives of their families and the people they interact with. The team doesn’t win the championship, but the team members’ lives are turned around. Coach Carter is what I would deem “an everyday hero.”
The story is best summed up in his quote: “I came to coach basketball players and you became students, I came to teach boys and you became men.”
The story inspired me. There’s a lot we can learn from the life of the coach and apply in our everyday lives.
Heroes grow in adversity
It’s easy to keep the winning team winning. It’s easy to grow your father’s successful business. It’s easy to stick in a marriage when you feel in love. It’s easy to believe for the miracle for the first month. When we see true heroes rise is when things get tough and they must muster courage, remain loyal, and do what’s difficult but right.
Heroes leave a legacy
The life of a true hero is not about him or herself. A true hero will lay down his life for what he believes in. A true hero is the teacher who visits the children’s homes when he doesn’t have to. A true hero is the dad who stays up late to work so his family can eat. A real hero is the woman who feeds children from the street because they have nothing to eat.
Heroes stand for what matters
True heroes will not give into peer pressure. If they have a conviction about something they will hold to it no matter what the general public says, or believes. It’s not easy to be strong when there is opposition and you can lose a job or friends, but these things should not let your integrity slip or your conviction slide.
Heroes are everyday people
So often we think a hero is some rich, famous, wealthy, or popular person. That’s not true. Real heroes are the people we meet everyday who have chosen to live bigger lives. People who have chosen to step up and step out. The employee at the grocery store who is the first person in his family to get a job, or the boss at your work who encourages you and takes the flack when things go badly.
True heroes are everywhere. So are people who pull others down, are given opportunities and don’t take them, are cruel, unkind, and selfish. At the core of each of us regardless, I believe we want to be a hero. We want to coach the winning team. We want to see people’s lives changed.
Stories like Coach Carter tell us “anyone can be a hero”. The question is, will you?