A few weeks ago we traveled with our youth group to Indiana to attend the Engage Youth Conference. Indiana Wesleyan University was our home away from home for five days. Three of those evenings involved a theme and one of the themes was “Super Hero.” We all dressed up, some of us far more so than others, and filed into the auditorium for the evening session.
As we stood several rows back from the other leaders in our
group, the music changed from upbeat to more of a
somber prayer, yet there we all stood worshipping a Holy God in costumes that
were every bit ridiculous. Some had
capes, some masks, others had fully-padded suits. I watched as the room of "super-heroes" lifted their hands to
praise and I thanked God for receiving us just as we are. A few rows in front of us I noticed a friend who, fully
dressed in a face-mask and cape, knelt beside her husband in prayer. When it comes down to
it, super-heroes or not, there is only One God capable of rescuing us. All “super-hero’s” and “super-figures” must
bow before the One King.
Now we’re settled back into home and God
reminded me of that moment in worship.
Was I trying to be a super hero in my own life?
Was he asking me to come before Him, to fix my eyes on Him
and let Him be the Hero of my story?
Because far too often I want to take matters into my own
hands and put things in order to my own timing.
I’m guilty of spending too much time whining and anxiously waiting and
wondering instead of trusting. As a mom,
a wife, a friend…
When my kids struggle with the
pains of growing and learning life as it is, I want to swoop in with my red
sequin “super-mom” headband and make it easier.
I want to create the perfect day of homeschool, the clean house, and the
full-course meal and do it all while folding my laundry, paying our bills,
tending to the garden and preserving the harvest. But most days I utterly fail to live up to
all these unrealistic aspirings.
When so many close to us are receiving
diagnosis after diagnosis and we’re all a little shocked by the weight of it
all, I want so badly to have the right words or prayers or actions to be “super-anything”
that might make it better. I want to
have a “super-guarantee” that it will all turn out as we selfishly expect, but
as a room full of hundreds got on our knees before God to lift these concerns,
He whispered just what it was I am to expect: the eternal. He didn’t guarantee the cancer would be
healed or the unresponsive would respond but He does guarantee eternal life for
all those who believe. In the eternal, there is no terminal, there
is only life.
We all do it in one way or another. We pick up the capes and try to rescue
ourselves from all that seems out of our control. But what if we just took a moment to pause,
to stop in the middle of it all and worship the One who is over it all.
The One
who is able to heal.
The One
who is in control when all seems vastly out of control. The One who cares about every detail and knows the inmost places of our hearts.
The One
who goes before us and makes a way that transcends time.
The One
who sees far beyond our earthbound perspective and into eternity.
The One
who promised to never leave us nor forsake us.
He reigns above all that weighs us down: the insecurity, the cancer,
the diagnosis, the unexpected, the mundane, the waiting, the process, the
heartbreaks, the depression, the unresponsive, the bad day, the job loss…
We can’t save ourselves.
But there is rescue, there is a Savior, there is Jesus.
And at the end of the day, no matter what we may face, Jesus
remains.
Eternity set in our hearts to save us forever.
May we be a people who expect the eternal, who pray boldly
that no matter how hard it is or what road lies ahead, that eternity may be the
answer. Let our desire be that Jesus
would win every heart and every soul involved regardless of the earthly
cost. May we learn to stop reaching for
capes and begin reaching for grace. May
we understand that all our wall-scaling is useless and the only place we belong
is on our knees before the cross of the One who already did the saving. He is able and He is mighty to save.
“I do not trust in my
bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our
enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name
forever. Selah.”
Psalm 44:6-8
“God proves to be good
to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly
hope for help from God…When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by
yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.” Lamentations 3:25-29 MSG
