Liviu Librescu was not your typical hero. He didn’t fit the hero mold. As a child, he survived the Holocaust. As an adult, he survived persecution for defying Romania’s brutal communist regime during the cold war. At last, with his children grown he seemed to find a safe haven as an engineering professor at the quiet Virginia Tech University in rural Virginia.
But trouble found him once more when gunfire rattled through Norris Hall. Lebrescu, 76, closed the classroom door and urged his students to escape out the windows. As they fled, Lebrescu held the door shut with his body as the gunman 23 year old senior Cho Seung-Hui tried to force his way in.
Moments after the last student leapt to safety Cho succeeding in forcing the door open shooting Lebrescu to death. Lebrescu’s act of heroism saved lives in America’s bloodiest massacre (32 killed and 17 wounded) inflicted on an American campus by a lone gunman.
Livia didn’t fit the typical bravado view of heroes and heroines.
You’ve heard it. If you set your mind to it you can do anything! Your sheer assertive determination is enough. It’s the survival of the fittest and victory to the strong. And so it goes.
We all can have moments of courage, but consistent courage is another thing. How’s your courage doing? Are you ready when the heat is on? Are you quick to quit when facing your challenge?
Courage is not found in just one big event.
Maybe you’ve observed along with me that courage is not found in just one BIG climatic event, but in the everyday choices we make in life. Will I daily stick to my core values or cave in to the convenient wisdom of the day instead of making decisions that are courageous?
Like Liviu, the little shepherd boy didn’t fit the hero stereotype either. He was radically over-matched with his challenger. You just couldn’t ask for a greater contrast between David and Goliath. Regarding outward appearance Goliath had it all. He exuded self- confidence. He was used to winning and at over nine feet tall and 125 pounds of armor you didn’t want to mess with this guy!
Scene #1 – The Israeli troops and King Saul were absolutely consumed with fear after 40 days of the Philistine giant’s daily embarrassing humiliation of Israel. He was taunting the Israeli defense forces by shouting, “You want some of me?” across the other side of the valley of Elah.
Our giants shout out to us as well from a person, a pressure, or a situation that’s too overwhelming for us. Inevitably, we all will need to face up to our Goliath.
I invite you to join us for our next blog as we discover how we can overcome our Goliath by how we respond to four personal challenges.
