Every Superhero's Struggle
We all secretly want to be a super hero. That's why we buy these comic books and stand in line for Spiderman. We vicariously live our adventures through their stories.
But since superheroes are part human and part "super,- they all suffer from some form of identity crisis. Though they end up saving the day, they all struggle to be freed from this prison of hiding their true identity. This is the place where super heroes become as human as we are. Like us, they too struggle with wanting to be free to be who they're supposed to be.
Imagination vs. Truth
At best, their stories are enjoyable. At worst, they are fantasies that keep us entertained but still stuck in the prison of our identity crisis. We cling to stories of dastard mega-minds that seek to end the world and how superhero (me) will save humanity, forgetting that these are mere myths and dreams conjured by the imagination.
Only to awake still struggling in the prison of who am I? And so we love good old Clark, Peter and Norrin because we identify with their struggles of balancing out the bad (their sins, disappointments, secrets with the good (saving the world).
This is the spiritual pendellum that keeps us in prison, struggling to apeace our souls with grand heroism to assauge our guilty humanity. One day we are super-heroes and the next moment we are guilty-nobodies.
The Struggle
We find ourselves swinging on two ends of a pendulum. On the one end is unrighteousness and on the other is self-righteousness. Unrighteousness produces fear because we know we are imperfect, guilty and incapable of measuring up to the righteous standards of God.
When guilt overwhelms us, we pendulum to the other side of self-righteosusness, to keep our consciences at peace. Here, we do good things to balance out our sins. If unrighteousness produces fear, self-righteosuness produces pride. And like super heroes who are guilty of pride as they succumb to the adulation of many, we pendulum back into unrighteousness, only to be back in fear.
Switching from unrighteousness to self-righteousness does not set us free. We are merely moving from one end of the prison walls to the other. To be set free is to be made righteous.
Overcoming the Struggle
Righteousness is to be made right not by anything we do, but because of everything our real hero did for us. Jesus's death on the cross makes Him the real hero. He unshackles us from the penalty, power and influence of sin. We are set free from the struggle of unrighteousness and make no claims of self-righteousness because we know that it is only He who has makes us righteous.
No longer do we shuffle from one end of the prison to the other. Rather we are out of prison, righteous and free because of what He has done.
So when the villians and witches come to lure us back into unrighteousness, or when we are expected by others to prove our self-righteousness and worth, we can smile and say:
I am not a superhero, hence I don't have their struggles. For I have One who is faithful and powerful. He is the true, the One and only Super Hero.
My Comments Policy
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