Want To Be a Great Man? Be a Good One First

It’s no secret: men value greatness. We’ve been captivated since childhood about stories of outstanding men who achieved extraordinary feats and beat the odds. We feel inspired by their success stories; how they combined their talents with the force of will to fulfill their God-given potential.

My favorite story of greatness since I was in diapers has been the “Miracle on Ice”: the story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team. Maybe you’ve seen Kurt Russell give the performance of a lifetime as Coach Herb Brooks in the excellent Disney movie; maybe you’ve heard your father or brother recite the famous locker room speech that Coach Brooks passionately delivered to his underdog team before the big game. My family members are probably nodding their heads vigorously while reading this. 

I loved the story of grit; a group of plucky college kids faced off against the ultimate opponent: the mighty USSR national team, fearfully nicknamed “the Red Army”.  It was boys against men; amateur hockey players against the perennial Olympic champs. Although major underdogs, the Americans banded together and used teamwork, creativity, and honest effort to pull off the impossible by defeating the Soviets and ultimately won the gold in a game they had no business winning.

This tale begs the question: why should we tell their story? 

Should we only care about them because they won the Gold? Should we only value them for their accomplishments, or should we admire the virtues they showed to get there? If we’re not careful, we won’t look at them as human beings with feelings, but as metal men, no more complex than bronze busts in the Hall of Fame. We’ll look at them as no more than a final score on a sheet of paper. 

Our culture runs skin-deep and works hard to make us think of people that way.

We’re taught by our peers to be similarly shallow; we’re told to value ourselves by our appearance, our popularity, and yes, our accomplishments.  We’re taught to pursue “greatness” without once evaluating what “greatness” is supposed to look like. 

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I’ve seen this trend take hold in our high school and university system. Schools are becoming concerningly competitive, quickly speeding away from the stereotypes in the mold of Grease or Fast Times at Ridgemont High that our parents knew and inching closer and closer towards the tribute training ground from The Hunger Games.

Kids are in a pressure cooker today to “become something great”. They have to do well in middle school to get into a good high school, then they have to get a 4.0 and do enough extracurriculars to get into a good college, and then get a good internship, and then have successful careers, and then they can finally be happy after checking all those boxes. Only then will they be “great”.

What has the response to this immense pressure been? Widespread cheating. Self-reported surveys show that college cheating can reach up to 60.1% in some college classrooms. Virtual learning has further exacerbated the problem, making academic dishonesty easier than ever before. I regularly heard my peers bring up cheating on exams without remorse in college, even bragging about it on occasion.

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I learned the value of goodness in high school, when I brushed into the opportunity to cheat my senior year during an exam. I was on a roll for most of the exam until I hit a wall towards the end. I ran into a question that I forgot the answer to, and my mind started scrambling. I knew that I knew the answer but just couldn’t find it in the moment. So…my eyes wandered and caught a glimpse of my classmate’s exam. Of course, there was the answer, written plainly enough for me to see. Without thinking, I wrote it down and moved on. It wasn’t a big deal, right? Surely this exam was just a means to an end…or was it? Then, I felt a gut punch from my conscience; I knew I was going to receive points I didn’t earn for submitting an answer that wasn’t mine. I had to face a moral crossroads: would I rather go for a better grade at the expense of my own ethics, or stick to my guns at the expense of the points?

God came to me at that moment and, in a loud booming voice (that only I could hear), told me “STICK TO YOUR GUNS, CAM!!!” (paraphrased). I realized that much more was at stake than a grade; my conscience, my sense of integrity, and my good faith with God. I couldn’t write down something that wasn’t mine, and so I erased it and left the line blank. I walked out of the test with the biggest grin  on my face; to this day, I’ve never been happier to get an answer wrong. 

What sounds more fulfilling: bragging to my parents that I got a grade that I didn’t deserve, or going to bed knowing that I have integrity?

This is why our pursuit of greatness has to go against the cultural grain. We’re always taught to value the results, but never the process. We’re taught to always look forward, no matter what; if it means we forfeit our morals, so be it. The ends–status and esteem–will always justify the means. We’re supposed to keep looking ahead at the men we want to be, but completely neglect the steps to take to actually get there. Greatness has to be more than checking a box.

God calls us all to build His kingdom, not ours. He does not see us as our culture does; while our culture places value on our esteem and titles, He looks beyond them and judges us by our character. His greatness is not valued in numbers; it’s valued in the heart. True greatness comes with the necessary hard work and sacrifice to become the best disciples possible, working towards sainthood. We cannot possibly become great in his eyes without a good, truthful, and genuine heart.

The Lord cares much more about our hearts than our titles and awards. Let’s do our best to bring him into our souls and become men He can be proud of!

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“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways”-Proverbs 28:6