Super man

I have yet to meet someone who does not have some sort of fascination with Superman. I should say with super men. I mean, not every one loves the guy in blue tights. Some people are obsessed with Spider-Man Batman or The Flash or Wonder Woman or one of the million other comic book characters. Or maybe it's not a comic book character. Maybe they are from a book or from a movie, but we all have someone that we look at and wish we could be. Some that is enough like us that we can relate, but different enough that they are able to rise above the impossible. Every language, every people, every race, every creed has someone that is super. And just to be clear:

super-

a prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, with the basic meaning “above, beyond.” Words formed with super-,  have the following general senses: “to place or be placed above or over” ( superimpose; supersede  ),  “a thing placed over or added to another” ( superscript; superstructure; supertax  ),  “situated over” ( superficial; superlunary  )  and, more figuratively, “an individual, thing, or property that exceeds customary norms or levels” ( superalloy; superconductivity; superman; superstar  ),  “an individual or thing larger, more powerful, or with wider application than others of its kind” ( supercomputer; superhighway; superpower; supertanker  ),  “exceeding the norms or limits of a given class” ( superhuman; superplastic  )

 We have become obsessed with "super" things in our culture. We want everything to be super. The problem is that denies the definition of super. If everyone in the world is super, than no one is. We're just average. But we don't talk about that. We just ask for super-sized meals and drinks. If our TV's aren't 60 inches, there is something wrong. We want all of it. Or none of it. If we don't have the update that tops the last one, we are somehow less (whether we admit it or not). We are constantly in a battle with our friends to top the last story. We want to be super and we want our lives to reflect our super-ness. We want everyone to at least acknowledge our super-ness, if not praise it out right. 

I wonder if a part of it is wired in our DNA. I know I have see one guy get mad when a second guy was good at what he was doing and trying to do a good job because the first knew he was just as smart - but probably more like way smarter than - as the second. Why is it that if we know we are smarter than someone else, they have to know it, acknowledge it and start taking orders from us? Is it because we are trying to prove to ourselves our worth? Are we trying to prove that we are super so that we can stay, so that we won't be rejected?

I know why I want to be super. I want to above it. Everything. I would like to be able to choose certain aspects of life. But most of it I would like to rise above, to not have to be touched by it. I want to hear my wife's heart and act accordingly. I want to say, do, read, live the right things all the time. I want to create useful and purely ornamental things. I don't want to destroy, I want to dismantle with restoration in mind. 
I guess the positive side is that while I am not super, I am able to identify with other people. And some of these things I can still do. I can become trustworthy. I can practice creativity. 

The other side of it is I know someone who is transcendent. He is creative. He regularly shows me stuff that he has made that has purpose other than being beautiful and things that are logical mechanisms. He has to dismantle sometimes, but always with reason and with the goal of restoration. He relates to me; he knows exactly where I am and what I'm feeling. He has dealt with all the issues I have and has overcome them. He gives me hope. For that matter, He is my hope. He keeps telling me not to give up, that I'll be the man that I want to be because someday I'll stop caring about me and forget concern for myself, filled with humility and concern for Him and others. I used to think that meant that I hated myself. It doesn't. It means that I am aware of myself, but not consumed with myself, with my comfort. 

It's interesting; I have always wanted to be caught up in something bigger than myself. I'm starting to think you can't do that if you are only plugged into yourself. Heaven knows, He was connected with Himself and with us.

The body

I don't know if you know about an organization called World Changers or not. If you do, awesome. If not, then you should. They do a lot of really awesome things all over the world. I have had the privilege to be apart of several projects, two overseas, three here in the States.
I have met all kinds of people from all over the United States and the world who care about Christ and the work He is doing. They are His body, tending to a broken world.

About a year ago I met a man named Robby Ott. Robby is a straight up man. He is passionate for the Lord, passionate for the youth he leads, passionate for his wife and children. I do not live close to Robby (he lives in South Carolina, I'm in North), but from the little time we have spent together, I know we are friends and could be great friends if we had more time together.

So why am I, a guy who regularly rambles, writing about Robby? Because he has stage 4 colon cancer. He's had some crazy complications. Because he is a brother in Christ and now, more than ever, he, his wife, and his four kids need prayer and help. Because he have an opportunity to be the body of Christ. I don't honestly know what all can be done to help. But I do know there are ways to find out.

Here is a website that is all about Robby, his family, and what is going on. You can sign up for a prayer time to pray for him. It also has a link to their caringbridge site.  There, April (Robby's wife) has been blogging about what is going on. I will not tell you that it is easy to read. It is not. It is difficult to read about someone going through so much pain.

But there is hope. Always, there is hope in Christ Jesus. It is hard to see it in the midst of tribulation. It is hard to see it when there is little to be done, but hope and pray and wait. But thankfully,

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
    to those who search for him.
²⁶ So it is good to wait quietly
    for salvation from the Lord.

And, 

³¹ For no one is abandoned
    by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion
    because of the greatness of his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not enjoy hurting people    or causing them sorrow. 




Lamentations 3:25,26, 31-33

Robby and April, I am waiting with you. My family is waiting with you. We are praying. 




Father, bring healing to Robby's body. You are the great physician and we know that you will get all the glory for restoring Robby so that he can continue to do the good works you have planned for him. Bring provision of every kind so that the Ott family can point to what you have done and glorify you with praises and thanksgiving. 

Holy Spirit, great Comforter, come dwell in the hearts of the Ott's giving them patience, peace, hope, self-control, love and wisdom. Move in our hearts, Holy Spirit, to be the true body, the body of Christ Jesus, caring for one another, providing for one another, lifting one another up. 

Jesus, we cry out to you! You are hope! Because of your faithfulness, righteousness and work on the cross, we can follow you. Prince of Peace, give us your peace that dares to trust in the midst of uncertainty. You are our King! Lead us now through death and life as we give ourselves wholly to you and ask for the old man to die and the new man live! Only you are qualified to be our guide in this life and in the next. We cling to the promise that you will not and have not left us. We claim your promise that you are working all of these things for our good! 

Invade us Holy God. Be made Holy in our lives and in our hearts. May we magnify your name in our conduct, speech and worship. May our lives be a pleasing sacrifice. 

Burn us up, LORD. Amen. 

Unused matches

For several years my immediate family lived across the US. We have gradually moved closer to one another and now all live in the same town. A little strange at times as it is the first time since I was 10, I think. But it's good.

When my parents first moved here they got a storage locker mostly because their kid's stuff. I will admit, I have not taken care of my stuff yet. I was there yesterday looking for something of my parents for my wife and decided that I would look for something of mine that I have not been able to find for some time now. As I sifted and sorted I came across a box of matches that a friend had given me in high school, ten or so years ago. At the time, I was a little obsessed with fire, so the gift and the little note inside made sense. All the note said was that this friend thought the box was cool and new I liked to play with fire so she got it for me. She said in the note "Keep on Fia for God :)." 

What is strange about all of this is that I have yet to use the matches. Matches, in and of themselves, have a very specific purpose: to catch and - presumably - start a fire. The purpose behind the gift was to be a physical reminder of both spiritual and emotional truth: the need to burn with passion for Christ and the affection of a friend. But these matches have never realized their purpose. They have neither burned nor reminded. They have a purpose, but they are unused.

I wonder how much people have become like those matches: physical reminders of who knows what for who knows what purpose.

I desperately do not want to waste my life, but I fear that is something that this generation has been lulled into  doing. How many 20 somethings are wondering merely existing, looking to "live the good life"? How many are passionate? How many are passionate about self pursuits? How many purpose themselves for the temporary, the instant, the quick and easy? How many, I wonder, will awake one day, as I have been waking, with the sudden harsh realization that like my box of unused matches, their life has gone a much shorter distance than they once thought? That they have missed their purpose, collected dust?

It is a paralyzing thought for me. "If I have no purpose," I ask myself, "what is my point?" I suppose the better question is what have I missed? Life can not exist without a purpose, so I made a mistake, put my thoughts and hopes into a mistaken purpose, one meant for another.
This is a question that we must ask ourselves. We must because life is too short to waste with a mistaken purpose. And let me be clear that purpose is not the same as vocation. They can be integrated, but they are not the same. We are in danger, this generation and this world. Without a clear purpose we will dissolve, slowly at first and then increasing speed and direction. It is happening now all around us.

The only true answer is found in Christ. He is the only one that can redeem and restore. He redeems us from death and restores our purposes. We are made useful in the eternal by the former and in the temporal by the latter. We have been redeemed to worship and glorify God inside and outside of time, forever. We have been restored to do the good works that God has prepared for us.

So what is my next step? I am going to use those old matches.

What about you?

Wanting more

I recently have gone through some significant life changes. I care less about the life change and more about my lack of living my life. What I mean is that for the better part of my life I have wanted to add depth to conversations and to the lives of those around me. I have wanted to be a person that causes others to think and feel deeply. Admittedly, I have wanted these things selfishly. Not to reveal the glory of God or to praise the name of Jesus or to relish in the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. I have wanted to be deep and thoughtful for deep and thoughtfulness sack. To look cool. 
But depth without substance is not depth. It is, in fact, shallow. The depth that the rest of the world totes - that I regarded as desirable - is a thin veil covering selfish ambition. We all want to be perceived as more than we are. 
But how can we be more than what we are? As much as I want one cookie to become a dozen cookies or two days of vacation to become four weeks of vacation it can not happen. At least in the case of vacation I can pretend that the two days really have become four weeks. I jeopardize any chance of steady employment by that illusion. Not to mention any connection with reality. 
No, there is no way to make myself something I am not. No amount of thinking I am something else, no amount of reading or running or traveling or eating will make me more than what I am. After all, what I am is not flesh and blood, but something deeper, more mysterious. I can discipline my body and become stronger, but that physical strength is not what I am. Not even my brain determines what or who I am. Even these attempts to alter myself physically, mentally or even "spiritually" only serve to increase my vapid attempts to add depth and meaning to myself. It does not add that substance that brings depth. Doing and seeing and experiencing are all meaningless without substance sustaining the movement. So where is this substance? Where can I find that sustaining substance?  
I must first understand that I am what is called a soul. But even knowing this does not answer the question of what do about adding depth to myself. How do I make one cookie, twelve? It has to be something outside of myself. It is something outside myself. More accurately, it is someone outside of myself. 

That person is Jesus, the Christ, son of the Most High God. I have looked at other teachers and philosophies and religions, all of which call me to make myself better. I am called to do more, perfect more, change more. It is all vanity. All of the things I am called to enhance me, perfect me, make me look better. 
Only Christ has the audacity to tell me that I am a dying man in need of a savior. He is the only one to tell me that all the checklists and do's and don't's won't heal me. He is the only one to tell me that I am shallow and there is nothing that I can do to add to my depth. Except for Him. 
He invites me to engage him in a relationship that changes my heart because I focus not on myself but Him who is so much bigger than I am. He beckons me to look outside to Him for my answers and trust when His answers do not seem to answer my needs. He adds substance that brings depth by the sheer force of His being. He is deep. It is because of Him that I can escape the vanity of this life.