When I was a kid I loved reading comic books and watching Saturday morning cartoons of people that were more than mere people they had something special about them. They were Superheroes. I remember imitating them, after watching an episode of X- Men my brothers and I would act like the heroes we just saw. I would run around with sunglasses and pretend to be Scott Grey or as most of us know him Cyclops. My Brother G would run around throwing cards at all of us and speak in a Cajun accent trying to be Gambit, and my brother Stephen would jump off the couch growling pretending he was a big hairy blue mutant named Beast. I loved watching episodes of Lois and Clark, I hated the entire love story that went along with it but I loved it when Superman would come and save the day. I had all the action figures: Spiderman, Superman, The Flash, Captain America, and all the ninja turtles. In fact every Friday I used to go to KB Toys and use the two weeks of allowance I had saved to buy a new action figure. I think I was nine when I realized that it would cost me about nine hundred dollars to get every Ninja Turtle action figure. I knew on my allowance it would take me three hundred and sixty weeks to buy all of them. I remember really thinking that was possible, and a wise investment plan for my future. I love Superheroes.
My all time favorite Superhero has always been Batman. I loved watching the old cheesy TV show and whenever I rode my bike I would play like it was the bat-bike, my room was the bat-room, I called my lunch the bat-lunch. I love Batman! He is a hero that I can really relate to. Unlike his Justice League friends Batman had nothing extra about him, yeah he had a ton of cash, but he had no Superpowers, he couldn’t fly, he didn’t have x-ray vision, lasers didn’t shoot out of his eyes. He was just a regular man. A man that saw something wrong in the world and decided to do something about it. I love in the movie Batman Begins when Batman has seen the filth that his city has become, he has seen the greed and corruption that has tore his city down but he says “Gotham isn’t beyond saving”.
In my life I look at our world today and what I see is disgusting. People are dying all over the world because of hunger. Genocide is accruing and millions are killed over a piece of land. America is no longer a safe place with the threat of terrorist’s attacks. Millions of kids in Africa are growing up without their parents because of AIDS and their lives to will be cut short because of it. Drug and Alcohol abuse is everywhere you look. Children are sexually and physically abused, and sold into a life of torment. Teen pregnancy is a normal thing in schools. Probably the most disgusting thing that I see is people getting wealthy on others misfortune. I see all this garbage and in my natural sense I say this there is no way to fix this. I look at it logically and see no way to make things in the world better. But then something arises in me and says: This world is not beyond saving!
It makes me think of Jesus when he was in the garden he looked into the cup and saw all the evil in the world. He saw all the wrong and selfish things we do. He saw the very thing he was not, Sin. He saw it all and said,”They are not beyond saving.” He prayed to God not my will be done, but yours. As Christians we have been given something. We have peace in the middle of devastation; we have hope where all is lost. We have the power to overcome anything.
We have the ability to become superheroes ourselves. We can look at the world and say it is not beyond saving. Through the power of Jesus Christ, this world can be changed. I say Superheroes literally, when we pray expecting God to move, we allow the Supernatural to be used in this natural world. However, far too often we want to pretend that nothing is wrong, or even worse we recognize there is a problem and think we can’t do anything about it. What can I do?” This type of comment is way to often said. “I’m nothing special, I don’t have any superpowers to use.” And in disbelief that anything will happen we say, “I guess all I can do is pray.” Our disbelief voids our prayer. We figure we already know the outcome. Nothing is going to change the results will still be the same, so why even try?
This type of excuses is the reason there are not many Superheroes in the world today. There are people that have done heroic things, but the people that have tapped into the supernatural to help or save another is very scarce. We are living in a hero-less generation. Superheroes need to rise up. Those of us that see something wrong and have the ability to act, also have the responsibility to act. Throughout history whole countries have been spared because one man stood in the gap. Because one man knew that his people were not beyond saving. What would happen if we took God for his word and prayed expecting something to happen? Expecting change? This world is not beyond saving!!