I just watched this small clip of kids getting a chance to interact with some of their favorite sports personalities. Their reactions to catching their eyes were priceless. Full of smiles, and sometimes tears. But why? I have a couple friends (not many) that have had the opportunity to perform on some of those stages. They are just regular guys, like you and me, yeah do they never have to worry about money for the rest of their lives? Yes. But they change diapers just like you and me, they worry about the same stuff. Am I in the right job? Am I making good decisions? For me? For my family? So why this epic response to heroes? Why does Hollywood make billions of dollars a year creating stories about heroes? Why does my son, every year, want to dress up on Halloween like Ironman, Spiderman, or the hulk?

In reality, it doesn’t make much sense. They are men and women at the end of the day trying to do the same thing we are trying to do: put food on the table for our families.

My point, we need heroes in our lives. We need to be reminded that all of us in our own capacity can handle a bigger stage, a bigger platform to let the greatest parts about ourselves shine. Even as adults we need to be reminded that regardless of the stage, that we were built for epic things. This is why this comes so quickly to children, their stage in life isn’t filled with bills and responsibilities. It is filled with an uninhibited space where they are free to be filled with the greatness around them.

Think about it. Do you remember the first time you walked into your first baseball stadium? Maybe it was a football stadium, maybe a movie theater on the edge of watching your first epic movie. Those moments meant something, they became a part of your DNA, and in those moments you knew there was something greater than you….and you were okay with it.

 Maybe I am writing this to remind myself of what used to live and breath so deeply in myself. It was a place that believed all things were possible. That miracles happened every day. That there was a driving force cheering me on, and that it wasn’t all up to me but that my part was crucial to the end goal.

 And maybe it is a reminder for you? Or the question: Do you remember? What was it that got you out of bed in your younger years? What was it that it consumed your mind? What was it that made you hungry to grab life by the horns?

I believe that those are the things that get us through our adult years. They are easily stolen by this world of calculated responsibility, but I also believe that they are also the things that need to be brought to the forefront in the midst of good stewardship and responsibility.

So again, I ask you, what is it for you, what is that heartbeat still inside your chest that is asking for your response?