photo credit here

there’s a reason  that Hollywood keeps making superhero movies.

 

here it is:  we keep watching them.

why?

 

my humble opinion: because the good guy wins.

 

not so in life.

 

we trudge daily through a world where beauty is marred by brokenness, where headlines read like horror novels, where Mother Nature and human nature are both weapons of mass destruction.

 

to live long in this world is to walk wounded, and my soul-friends certainly carry scars.

when i tell their story, the most common response is one of incredulity.  the hearer lapses for a brief moment into the hypothetical “what if that were me?” then typically responds with something like:

 

“i don’t know how she does it.”

or

“i don’t understand how he stays so strong.”

 

bred on southern courtesy, i nod and say:  “me, too.  i don’t know.  can’t even imagine.”

but i lie.  i do know.

the loss i cannot fathom, the pain remains surreal, but the truth of how they do it is plain.

 

you see, i’ve loved them both a long time.  i could list you off their very best character traits, things that make me proud to call them friends …

 

but superheroes they are not.

 

the thing that allows them to perform feats of super-human strength … well, it sounds, quite frankly, like something out of a sci-fi movie.

 

they are indwelled.

 

something other than flesh and bone lives within them.  made of mystery.  of Spirit.  of God himself.

 

no mantra sustains them, no self-help book offers guidance … the very essence of Jesus Christ sets up residence within them.

 

the same Jesus who made lame men walk, who gave sight to the blind … this is the supernatural power that helps them pour cereal into bowls, fight traffic, and go about the business of a day from which one so long-awaited has gone missing.

 

to give them credit is to miss the point entirely.  and they would tell you so.

 

they would tell you so … and then they would invite you to consider –or perhaps reconsider — the truths found in the gospel, the Jesus found there.

 

i merely type out thoughts on a keyboard that land on your screen somewhere, wherever you are … but this Jesus, He knows your story.  He knows all of the reasons why you might shy away from the intimacy of being indwelled.  Reasons that cause you to ignore Christianity entirely.  Or … reasons that cause you to make God a sign you agree to hang on your front door, but not someone whom you allow into the mess of your closets.

 

whatever your reasons, whatever your story, might i invite you to consider the ways you have been fighting back against the painful parts of your story?  there is One who wishes to fight for you:

to comfort,

to counsel,

to teach,

to guide,

to empower.

 

so that  you may fly.

 

like Superman.