When I was a
kid, I loved superheroes.  I had a large toy box in my bedroom with no
toys in it – just comic books.  I can still recall being told to go
clean up my room (since comics were strewn all over the floor like a
shiny, variegated carpet).  Half an hour or so later, when my parents
would come to check on my progress, what do you think they found? 
Yep.  Me, sitting in the midst of a superhero sea, reading a comic
book.  The dialogue went something like, “I told you to pick up your
comics, not read them.”  “But I haven’t read this one in a long time!” 
It had been at least a week.

Now as an adult, I have matured far beyond such fanciful pursuits –
NOT.  Seriously, I really enjoy reading superhero comic books to this
day, and I know I’m not alone (come on, guys!).  Most – excluding
graphic novels – are around twenty pages or so, with five to ten frames
per page, sometimes less.  I can “Flash” (sorry) through one in twenty
to thirty minutes, if uninterrupted.  They truly are like cotton candy
in print – colorful, sweet but they don’t last long.   So why are many
of us so enamored with these superfolks?

The reason strikes me as two-fold.  First, we like reading about superheroes because their lives are happening! 
I mean, there’s nothing like spending an hour or two living vicariously
through Superman or Green Lantern when your own life feels boring or
uneventful.  These heroes never sit around watching nothing on TV, or
spend an hour cleaning a bathroom, or occupy their days by staring at a
computer monitor.  They’re out there, fighting back the storm, keeping
supervillains at bay and defending their charges.  They risk their own
safety, even their lives, with every issue, just to defeat the schemes
of evil and keep us from harm.  They are making a difference. 

Many
of us, men in particular, are tired of being told that making good
money in a boring job is success.  We feel the irresistable pull to
engage in battle, and it nags at us.  We want to answer the call in the
fiber of our being to put our strength, our skills, our design
to work fighting for truth, justice, and yes, I’m not afraid to say it…
the American way.   Can you name another country which has done more to
support and defend freedom?  This country is flawed, of course, as any
conglomeration of flawed components is; but God has worked and is
working through the USA (albeit not exclusively) to accomplish His will
on earth, just as He works through flawed human beings individually to
do the same.  Those human beings who put their trust and hope in Christ
become His brothers, and we get the amazing blessings of access to the
plan, the Holy Spirit living inside us and participating in the glory
of God!  We are designed by our Creator with a certain shape and
particular strengths which fit special good works just waiting for our
hand; and in Christ, we will find them.  (Eph. 2:10)

The second reason I believe we are so drawn (sorry again) to superheroes is one word:  power.  They have great power,
and they use it to engage the forces of darkness at every opportunity,
courageously standing in the gap.  Our thrill when Superman shields a
group of bystanders from a missile that explodes harmlessly on his
Kryptonian chest isn’t just mindless testosterone and grunting as many
have portrayed it; we cheer because he’s doing what we long to do,
being who we long to be.  It’s awesome.

The trouble is, while we sense this powerful desire to step out and
take action, we are also undeniably aware of our weakness, our
failings, the debilitating wounds we carry around.   Even as a follower
of Jesus Christ, while I have a real relationship with the One who made
me, and I’ve been rescued from sin’s condemning effect, my flesh often
persuades me to try generating the power I seek on my own.  I get a
little exasperated with God’s methodology, impatient for the rush of
knowing I’m doing something significant.  So, at some point, I grab
hold of what I can find.  Maybe I’ll dust off my tools and build those
shelves or the cabinet I’ve had on my to-do list for a year.  Or I’ll
split a cord of maple (okay, half a cord), refusing to employ a wedge
or ask for a buddy to help, because I am going to conquer
this wood with just my maul!  I might even sign up to lead or serve in
a program at church which God has not even called me to or equipped me
for.  Just get something done – it feels good, right?  And they’re not
wrong or stupid things to do; but the truth is, the power never lasts. 
I get the task completed (usually) and feel pretty good and satisfied. 
All good stuff.  But within a couple of days, the nagging is back.  I
need another fix.   And I begin thinking about something bigger,
better.  Maybe if I accomplished some grand feat, then the fulfillment
would last.

As I ponder my affinity for the superhero life (sans spandex,
please), I search God’s word and pray for clarity, and honestly, for
some confirmation.  And the Lord doesn’t disappoint.  In fact, He’s
pleased, and it’s just fine that I want to fulfill my design.  But He
prods me, and I sense there is a power so superior to what I’ve been
chasing, so astounding and marvelous, yet requiring much less stress
and strain than I’ve already expended.  Sign me up!  And He responds, I already have. He calls me to walk a little further, think a little higher, and there reveals His superhero: 
Jesus.  No costume, no lasers, no insignia or cool power ring.  Just a
real man who’s power, from the same Holy Spirit who lives in me, makes
Superman’s like that of a dead flea.  Seriously.  A real man, but One
who stepped aside from ownership of His body and His human ability, who
relinquished the freedom to analyze which words to say and actions to
take, instead walking such a striking, unnatural, non-intuitive path,
I’m shaken to the core by the simplicity of His way.

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father
is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the
Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” — John 14:10

“Jesus gave them this answer:  ‘I tell you the truth, the Son
can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father
doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’” — John 5:19

“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my
judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” — John 5:30

I’m blown away.  It’s reversed; not how I was thinking at all.  But still, the idea feels a little elusive, like an echo
you’re not sure you really heard, or a wisp of something in the corner
of your eye that disappears when you look straight at it.  Could it be
this power He speaks to me about I’m not able to own or grasp, unlike
my hammer or maul?  Maybe it’s beyond that, not merely a tool I choose
from the box and wield to accomplish a purpose.  Maybe this Power
wields me.