Be a Super Hero

My BFF celebrated my birthday in her delightfully unorthodox style. She snuck over to my house at midnight with a crockpot of roast and veggies and plugged it in on my back porch. And then she taped silly pictures to my plate glass doors and left cards and gifts. That’s plural. Over the years Red and I have adopted a more is more approach to each other’s birthdays. She even gifted me with Wonder Woman PJs. There’s more to that story but let’s not. I’d rather use the super hero thread as a call to action for all of us.

Did you know disciples of Christ are equipped with super hero powers? It’s true. We can choose to plug into other worldly strength. Let me explain.

Take someone whose words cut as often as they encourage. It’s difficult to respond to anyone who does that but it’s even harder if that person professes to be a believer.  Do I speak the truth? Well, I have a theory. Hear me out. I think it’s possible for someone to be forgiven by God but not feel forgiven and hence they can’t live forgiving.  

We tend to think such people don’t feel remorse for their spitefulness but what if it’s just the opposite? What if they live in a self-made self-maintained prison, punishing themselves for the past? And what if the bars of that cage grow stronger every time they give in to bitterness and lash out – because it gives them yet another reason to hate themselves more. But, wait. What if those same bars get weaker when our response to their ugliness is more love and forgiveness. What if we’re the factor that will determine if that person buries herself or himself in self-hate or if they’re eventually fully healed? What if all that depends on you and me choosing to act out of the new nature Christ gave us?

Jesus can do through us what we could never do in our own strength— if we’ll respond to others out of real-time moments of surrender to Him.  Now, go be a super hero. Somebody you know needs one.

Hugs,
Shellie