The Heart of a Hero
“Ron, I can’t stand it. It drives me out of my mind every day having
to stand by that drive-through window for eight hours,” Michael went on. “Eight
hours. Try it for a few days, and you
realize real fast that eight hours is a long
time to be making coffees. For months
now, life’s just seemed like one long nightmare.”
“Well,
working at Starbucks has brought in a larger paycheck, hasn’t it?” Ron
questioned to which Michael nodded. “And
paying the rent on the house has been easier.
In truth, you’re better off now than you were while working at Home
Depot, don’t you think?”
Michael
nodded with a sigh. “I guess so,” he
agreed reluctantly.
“Truthfully,
I can’t see anything wrong with the job then,” Ron confessed.
“Well,
there is something wrong with it,”
Michael insisted. He sighed
heavily. “I can’t explain it. It’s just not for me.”
“Are
you sure it’s not for you, or maybe
it’s just not for your pride,” Mr. Henderson suggested gently. He watched as Michael abruptly turned his
gaze away with a slight air of annoyance.
“Give me a moment.”
Michael
watched as the older man started back toward the manor house and then
reappeared a brief moment later, carrying a handgun and a target which he set
up several feet away.
“There. That should do,” Ron remarked, surveying the
target with satisfaction as he returned to the wooden bench where Michael
sat. He took a seat beside the younger
man. “You have your gun, right?” he
asked, casting him a glance.
Michael
nodded. “I never leave the house without
it.”
“Well,
go ahead and have a shot at it,” Mr. Henderson encouraged, nodding toward the
target.
Michael
drew the gun from his pocket, and taking a second to aim, fired, sending the
bullet piercing the very middle of the target.
The
elderly man nodded his approval. “You
know, I’ve had this gun since I was probably about your age,” Ron remarked,
turning his gaze down to the gun he held.
“I suppose as a big army hero, you can shoot with just about any
gun. Have a go at it,” he instructed,
handing Michael the gun.
Michael
accepted the firearm a bit uncertainly, questioning what his friend’s
underlying motive was for the whole exhibition, but nevertheless, he aimed and
fired. Surprisingly, the bullet hit in
one of the outer rings far from the middle.
“Michael,
why do you think you missed a bull’s eye?” Ron questioned.
He
shrugged casually. “I’m probably just
out of practice. I haven’t had much time
to go down to the shooting range lately,” he explained.
Ron
nodded slowly. “Maybe,” he agreed
doubtfully. “Or maybe your sights were
just off,” he added meaningfully.
“Ron,
I’m sorry. I’m not catching on to
whatever you’re getting at,” Michael admitted.
“Michael,
we’re never going to hit the mark and attain everything the Lord desires for us
in the seasons of our lives if our sight’s off.
If we’re too preoccupied focusing on the negative qualities of our
situations, we’re never going to see the reason why the Lord’s called us to
where we are and to walk the path He’s called us to walk. And you know how our sight gets off?” he
asked. “By pride. Apathy and indifference, by callousness, by
pessimism- always looking on the downside of things. Now I’m not saying that pride is a bad
thing. In fact, I think it’s good to
have a sense of pride. I know you’re probably
proud of your family and of your accomplishments. That’s good; a little pride is healthy. But when your pride restricts your service to
the Provider of all you’re proud of… that’s when it’s time to get your pride
back in check again,” he clarified.
“You know, I never liked this gun
because I could never get the sights just right on it,” Ron went on, indicating
to the gun he held again. “Having a
negative perspective of our situation is only going to make us more discontent
with it, and from the position of others… nobody likes to be around a
pessimist. And what’s more, do you think God likes to use an instrument that’s
unprepared for His use, a weapon whose sights are off and who’s unwilling to be
used in the battle?” He paused. “Michael, with your heart for others, I know
the Lord has a plan and a purpose for calling you to exactly the position you
find yourself in right now. You come
face to face with so many people
every day working in that coffee shop, and I truly believe that the Lord wants
to use you to influence the lives of those people that cross your path. But it’s not going to happen if you’re not
prepared to be used. You’re just going
to keep missing the mark unless you get your sight set right again.” He paused again, studying the man sitting
there beside him. “Unless you align your
sight with His eternal perspective, you’re going to miss out on all He desires
for you in this season you’re walking in.”
In April/May, I completed
my first, full-length novel titled The Heart of a Hero. About one month later, I discovered a
Christian novel contest online hosted by Athanatos Christian Ministries, and
considering that the contest rules apply to my story, I planned to submit The
Heart of a Hero into the contest. In
fact, I did so just today. The final day
for entry is September 1st. For more
information on the contest, see www.christianwritingcontest.com.
For
several weeks now, I have been working diligently at preparing my story for
submission. People truly underrate the
job of an author. There’s so much more
to writing a book than simply coming up with an interesting plot and typing it
out. There’s proofreading, editing,
rewriting, researching, plotting, planning, and outlining. Fortunately, I had some help in the steps
after writing the first draft of my book.
I want to thank my mom especially for aiding me in proofreading my final
manuscript, which was no trivial task considering the story is 60,000+
words.
Needless to say,
this contest could be a tremendous milestone in my writing career if I win. I would really appreciate prayer for the contest-
that the Lord will use my book to touch the life of at least one of the judges
that reads it, regardless of whether or not it’s His will for me to win. Of course, no one enters a contest without a
desire to win though, and I’m especially eager to receive the promised feedback
and suggestions for my story. I’ll post
more about the contest later once I receive any further details pertaining to
my book.
The book is
obviously not published yet; however, if you’re interested in learning more of
what the book is about I have included below a brief summary of the book as
well as a book trailer and a slideshow interview of me talking a little about The
Heart of a Hero. A word about the book
trailer and interview: generally, I’m a rather soft-spoken person so I’d advise
you to listen to my interview with ear-buds to ensure that you can hear my
replies clearly; the trailer also has some dialogue which is unfortunately much
quieter than the rest of the trailer so it’ll take some frequent adjustment of
your volume as you watch it. And a
correction to a statement made in my interview: at the time that I recorded my
answers, I had forgotten another place in the story that doesn’t actually exist
in real life- Mr. Henderson’s estate.
Besides Ron Henderson’s house and the Lahayes home, however, every other
place is a real location. I want to also
give a special recognition to my father and to my best friend, both of whom
allowed me to use their voice talents in my book trailer. Thank you, Daddy and Christian, for your
incredible cooperation and support.
Being on a tight
budget, I made both the book trailer and interview slideshow myself on my
little Acer netbook. I don’t claim to be
an expert at making either; in fact, this is my first experience with book
trailers and interviews. I sincerely hope
you enjoy them nonetheless though.
If you like the royalty-free music, sound effects, and pictures, check out: www.danosongs.com and www.royaltyfreemusic.com as well as www.123rf.com.
In The Heart of a Hero, United States Army
general Michael Lahaye is forced to retire from a successful military career
when a tragic accident in an Afghanistan village leaves him with severe memory
loss and post-trauma. Ten years later,
he finds himself the owner of a thriving horse-training business, married to
his sweetheart, father to three children, and the resident of a beautiful home
in Loganville, Georgia. Life seems like
it couldn’t get any better for him.
In an unexpected turn of events however, Michael
finds his world drastically shaken and altered.
When a devastating tragedy strikes his family, Michael is left in
recognition that he didn’t hold as much control over his life as he had thought
he did. Through the hardships that
follow however, Michael comes to the realization that he had never fully
adjusted to civilian life again, and he must face the challenges of overcoming
the drive of his army experiences. With
the aid of his elderly friend and mentor Ron Henderson, Michael begins a
journey of discovering what defines a true hero- a hero in God’s sight. Through the trials he and his family face,
Michael uncovers the truths of how to truly become a hero by character and not
only by title as he learns how to overcome the daily struggles of life and the
enemy encounters that hinder a walk with Christ. It’s a story of one man’s journey and how his
faith and willingness to follow the Lord’s will touched the lives of others and
made a difference in his community. The
journey of “a man of love, a life of courage and integrity… and the heart of a
hero.”
*I’m aware that the quality of these
videos is not the best. I have uploaded
the videos multiple times, but there seems to be a malfunction in the uploading
process every time. Needless to say,
there isn’t much else I can do to correct the problem; I suppose sometimes you
have to meet computers halfway and come to terms. The videos have corrected themselves to an extent, but the quality of the videos is still pretty
blurry if you can get the videos to play at all; however, there are ways
around the problem. I’ve done some
experiments and here are the results:
I’ve learned that the videos will not play on Apple’s iPhone or Amazon’s
Kindle Fire tablet. They will
play however on an Android RAZR smart phone, but the quality’s very
blurry. From what I’ve found, the videos
will play fine on laptops and a Blackberry Playbook tablet so long as you keep
it in the small-view; full-screen view makes the picture blurry. I realize there are a lot of stipulations to
watching these videos- ear buds, a laptop- but I hope you find that the videos
are worth it. Enjoy! J
The Heart of a Hero book trailer
The Heart of a Hero interview with the author
“The Lord is always more
concerned with the man
that you are
than the man that you were.”
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