God always uses foolish and weak instruments. He uses broken vessels. Put differently, he doesn’t depend on our strength or abilities.

History Celebrates Great People

History is crafted by the inspirational tales of men and women who have done and achieved extraordinary things. There are heroes and heroines in almost all vocations of life. Men and women who defied the odds stacked against them. These people became number one, receiving acclaim and being recognised as superior to their peers. 

In philosophy we read about men like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. Coming to science we meet men like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin. Touching sports we are told about men like Pele, the great Brazilian soccer player. In boxing, names like Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr (Muhammad Ali) echo through time. Political history upholds and reveres men like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. From the entertainment industry we see history presents us with musicians like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Diana Ross, and Aretha Franklin. This is to name just some of the heroes and heroines of history.

What Makes People Successful or Special?

All of the above mentioned people are thought to have had the X-factor. It is believed these people are in the history records precisely because they possessed something not inherent in other people. No one seems to know exactly what this X-factor is. And everyone has their own idea of what this extraordinary something is. So we’re told that we don’t know what it is, but when we encounter it we’ll know. It is that undefined something special. 

The world is at pains to constantly discover people with this extraordinary quality. That’s why we have programmes like The X-factor, Pop Idols, Master Chef, and The Apprentice on our televisions. People are persistently seeking to discover the next Michael Jackson. They long to unearth the next Usain Bolt.

Almost every parent fancies their child or children to belong in this group of people. From the time we are born, we are subjected to immense pressure to prove ourselves. Each of us believes that we’re destined to write our names in the history books.

Culture Enshrines Excellence

The truth is, like the ancient Greek nation, we live in the times of a worldwide cult. The cult of hero worship. A prevalent idol of our culture and generation is hero worshipping. In Greek mythology the Greeks had heroes such Hercules, Achilles and, Perseus, to name a few. Like them we live in a culture that creates heroes and then worships them. The naive admiration of these idolised philosophers, politicians, athletes, and musicians has elevated them to the status of superhuman. Unwittingly, we regard certain figures as demigods.

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