The World’s Greatest Lie
And the Path to Freedom
By Kendel J. Christensen
Part VII of VIII
3. How would my heroes respond?
Ever since my 8th grade history class with Mr. Fox, I decided that I loved history. The world would have us believe that the greatest people are a scarce resource. They are great only because they are lucky, gifted, or exceptionally blessed. You and I could never be like them. This, too, is part of the world’s Greatest Lie.
The greatest people from history are not great by accident. Greatness takes deliberate effort, and each one has a story to tell of how they became great. I have been fascinated learning how they got to be the way they were—how they progressed from shy schoolchildren to realizing their full potential.
It is my belief that you can’t help but be empowered to stand up and take charge of your life when you read their stories. Literally everything that could go wrong, goes wrong… and they make it right, or how what they wanted to do was impossible… and they did it anyway.
How can you be a victim when you know the stories from heroes like Mandela and Frankl? How can you be a victim when you know the story of Elias Feinzlberg, who survived the holocaust while remaining hopeful and positive—tricking the guards and making up games to play to take his mind off his starvation? How can you be a victim when you know the story of Nujood Ali’s forced marriage to a man in his thirties, who abused her? When Nujood was just 10 years old, she hatched a plan to take a taxi away from her remote village to file a divorce at the city courthouse. How can you be a victim when you see what Brad Snyder, Jill Bolte Taylor, and Neil Pasricha chose to do in response to some of the most devastating tragedies that can befall a person?
I submit that you cannot be a victim, not if you truly catch the vision of what their lives mean. Note that I am not merely advocating that you simply learn about some people from history and be content with the increase in your accumulated facts about them. I am advocating that you adopt some heroes in your life—especially local heroes. Say to yourself, “I have a personal affinity to this person—it is my intention to live my life like them, and stand for what they stand for.” It will widen your perspective, and change your life. We tend to become like those we admire.
The Path to Freedom requires that you be deliberate about doing so.
…to be continued…