Joel Osteen & Beowulf

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Joel Osteen, a Motivational

Preacher of God and Inspiration to Mankind                   By Derrick Boltz

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When you think about heroes, how often does the concept of them in everyday life cross your mind? Oftentimes, many people think of and remember figures in our history as heroes, yet this usually takes place after they die. This is partly why many of these people that we may deem to be heroes are ones from the past. Past time historical heroes even include ones like Beowulf from long ago that come from stories that have been created and told, even though stories such as that one are usually fictional.

One modern-day person that fits the category of a hero is Joel Osteen. His real-life story, including what he has accomplished and done to help others, allows us to be able to see him as a present-day hero. Even though the people that can be seen as heroes of our time and the past are different, there are many connections that can be made between any two heroes. These connections are oftentimes drawn from how the actions these heroes take are taken, as well as the impact and effect of what their actions have had on others and even the world.

Between Joel Osteen and Beowulf, there are many similarities between the two of them, although Beowulf is coming from a time period so long ago that it just happens to be the oldest story in the English language. Just like how there are connections between heroes from the past to modern-day heroes, there are also similar ties between values and concepts people had in the past to those we have today. The actions of the heroes that have emerged over time in our world from the past and present are most times directed towards these certain values and concepts in some way, as to be seen in this article.

As for Joel Scott Osteen, he was born in the year 1963 on March fifth to his parents John, who was a Pentecostal minister, and his wife Dolores Osteen. Joel Osteen has grown to have a very successful career as a pastor and author (“Joel Osteen”). He has become to be one of the largest icons of the religion of  Christianity today, and he is known all around the world from the televised sermons that he preaches every Sunday to people at home and his congregation at Lakewood Church, the former basketball center, which is located in Houston,Texas. Joel’s words about God, the religion of Christianity, and of Jesus are heard in over 10 million homes across this country, and people all around the world from more than 100 countries hear the messages on television from Joel Osteen. These messages that Joel Osteen preaches of the word of God are aimed to motivate people and inspire them to follow the lord and be good Christian followers of him for themselves, others, along with God almighty ("Pastor Joel Osteen: An Everyday Message, Magnified"). In his famous career, Joel Osteen is helping himself and many other people to reach the immortality that lies beside the glory of God in the kingdom of heaven, as well as to be safe from darkness and evil.

In the story of Beowulf, the mighty warrior Beowulf helps both himself and others reach the concept of lof, immortality through achievements and fame, and he does this through his fighting career in the the journeys and famous battles that he and his men take part in. Although their ways of doing so are different, both Joel and Beowulf’s goals to achieve high glory or fame, involving the concept of everlasting life, and they are both rewarded for their successful efforts.

Joel Osteen is rewarded in that he and his congregation of believers in God will ultimately see the riches in heaven after their time on earth passes and be saved from hell. However, Beowulf and his men receive riches in the form of gold, jewels, etc. for what they did with their time here, including saving people from monsters that lurk in the darkness in hell apart from the light. Even though the story of Beowulf is mythological, it has been immortalized in time up to how it is today. How Joel Osteen came to be where he is here today can be said to be by fate through his upbringing under God.

Even before Joel began to pastor the church of Lakewood, his father John had already expanded the Lakewood church to a congregation of about 8,000 members. Joel's father had also always been encouraging of him try his hand to preach out of the thought that he would do very well at it. Joel had worked behind the scenes for many years for his father within the television department in the studio at Lakewood when his father would speak, but he finally made the decision to preach one Sunday out of an urging feeling that he was supposed to do it. His father was overjoyed to hear him preach his first sermon, yet he died the following week from a fatal heart attack. Joel then took over the church after his father passed, even though he had only spoken one sermon and had never even went to seminary school, but he had the feeling that this was meant to be. Joel tried to pastor the traditional church the way his father had done it in the traditional way, since he had thought that was the way the people would listen to what he had to say, but he ultimately made it his own and expanded the church even further than he had ever dreamed of doing to where it is today by following his heart and setting the tradition of the church aside (“Pastor Joel Osteen: An Everyday Message, Magnified"). The specific sequence of events in how Joel Osteen had become the pastor of Lakewood Church helped to lead him to what I have heard him say was his heavenly father’s major plan for his life, so it can be said is was fate for his life to be what it is and to have the impact it has on the lives of others.

The fate of Beowulf’s life, on the other hand, had been one to be a warrior. With his massively superior strength over other men and beasts, he was destined to be a great fighter. He used his strengths to carry out his fate in life of battle against men, beasts, dragons, other monsters, etc. and attract whatever was meant to come his way. Joel Osteen is very good at attracting people, and he does so in the tens of thousands each week who attend his weekly sermons, and in fact over 45 thousand people come to hear him speak at a time. He reaches people by communicating with them outload and through the books he writes to meet them on a personal level and help them to be victorious in their lives in all aspects, including relationships with other people, God, and for themselves in mind, body, and spirit. Joel loves and taken pride in what he does, similar to how Beowulf takes pride in what he does and his accomplishments.

Joel Osteen loves to be a pastor and author, since he enjoys being able to help people and inspire them to be better and live to serve others and God ("PW talks with Joel Osteen: keeping it positive"). Joel  is able to gather and bring together millions of people from all over the world of different countries/ nationalities, since he is very easy for people to like and appeal to due to the power of his positive thinking. He is also very open to people instead of politics, and this helps to broaden the amount of people/ companions he is able to impact. Like Joel Osteen, Beowulf was very good at bringing people together for specific causes and purposes, such as to fight enemies to the death with courage. This reflects on the pagan value they have of comitatus (companionship and loyalty to a with friends, the kingsmen, and the king himself), and Joel shows this in his loyalty to God, the king of all things. He also shows it in his interactions with his fellow men and women as well, speaking the word of God to anybody who will listen, and doing so with great courage and passion alongside his family, including his wife Victoria Lloff and their two children Jonathan and Alexandra Osteen.

Between Joel Osteen and the epic character of Beowulf, large connections can be made, drawn from the concepts of  fame, fate, and comradeship (lof, wyrd, and comitatus in pagan terms). Both of these two heroes can be called so based on how they live their lives, as well as the values they have such as riches, courage, and pride in order to be their best and stand out among the rest, all while helping others to be better. Heroes are pretty easy to recognize, even when going back through time to some of the first heroes, and it is possible for almost anybody to be a hero nowadays. Joel Osteen says, “I love being able to help people, to inspire them, to guide them to a better self-image. There is no feeling like hearing someone say, "You helped me"” ("PW talks with Joel Osteen: keeping it positive"). Joel Osteen has helped people over the entire world with his words alone. Heroes like him are remembered for what they have done to help others and make this world a better place to live in, so what can you do to help the people of this planet in order to set yourself apart be remembered as a hero?

“As with writing any of my books, I continue to grow, mature, and be a better person. And I hopefully learn new ways to communicate with people about faith and life...when you live a victorious life you have good relationships, a good career, good health, and a good attitude and self-image” (Osteen).

One helpful tip: “Find something to be grateful for. I think when you're grateful, it's hard to be unhappy. So I always tell people if you get up in the morning - and you know what, don't start the day off thinking about all your problems, and it's raining, and I got to go to work. Get up and think, OK, you know what, I'm grateful that I'm alive, or I can breathe without pain, or I've got healthy children. Get the day started off in a grateful attitude. It helps the day to go better” (Osteen).

Works Cited

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"Joel Osteen." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2014. Literature Resource Center, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1000163507/LitRC?u=pl2280&sid=LitRC&xid=f20a1469. Accessed 8 Nov. 2018.

"Pastor Joel Osteen: An Everyday Message, Magnified." Weekend All Things Considered, 28 Apr. 2012. Literature Resource Center, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A288270816/LitRC?u=pl2280&sid=LitRC&xid=0243fbc5. Accessed 8 Nov. 2018.

"PW talks with Joel Osteen: keeping it positive." Publishers Weekly, 8 Sept. 2014, p. 56. Literature Resource Center, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A382535195/LitRC?u=pl2280&sid=LitRC&xid=a9978354. Accessed 8 Nov. 2018.