I was finally able to see the recent
superhero movie, “Captain America.” I've loved superheroes since
I was a kid, and as a result I've loved superhero movies for the same
amount of time. My favorite is “Superman,” but Captain America
ranks right up there with old Supes.
For those not in the know, the
character of Captain America starts out as a weakling kid from
Brooklyn, NYC, named Steve Rogers. In some versions of the comics, he
had polio. For the movie, he was a short, scrawny asthmatic with a
medical history that would make most doctors cringe. He attempted to
enlist in the Army because he didn't feel right about not being there
to do his part for the war effort. When he was given the “4F”
rating, he went to another recruiting office and tried again. When
that didn't work, he tried again. He refused to give up. When he was
beat up in an alley, he refused to back down even knowing he would
lose the fight. Steve Rogers refused to give up. What's more, he
couldn't stand bullies, and always thought of the other person first,
regardless of what it cost him.
His determination and heart caught the
eye of the scientist in charge of a super soldier program that would
take an ordinary man and give him extraordinary strength, speed,
endurance, and self-healing abilities. To illustrate his point about
why Steve was the perfect candidate for the program, a dummy grenade
was tossed towards Steve's training platoon (who didn't know it was a
dummy). Everyone else, all men much larger and stronger that Steve,
ran from the grenade. Steve, believing it would kill people close by,
ran to it and jumped on it to save their lives. The scientist who
chose him knew what he was doing, and could see in Steve what no one
else could.
When God chooses people for a task, He
doesn't choose the people we would normally think the best suited. He
never chooses the richest, the strongest, the fastest, the smartest,
or the best educated. He never chooses the best speakers. God chooses
the Steve Rogers from among His people (and sometimes He starts by
choosing those not from among His people at first). He most often
chooses the weakest, the slowest, the least educated. What does He
see in them? He's not concerned about their physical and mental
abilities because He's perfectly capable of suping them up as needed
by His Grace and power. He's concerned about whether or not they're
going to trust Him and accept what comes from Him. Someone who has
always been able to trust his own abilities isn't going to let go of
those abilities in favor of what God can do, and is far too
susceptible to pride and self-esteem believing that it was through
their own abilities and not God's.
Today, I just saw something truly
amazing. I saw my wife out raking up grass, watering plants, and
doing yardwork. She's been doing it for a couple of hours. Now she's
back in the house talking and joking. Three years ago, that wouldn't
have been possible. Even two years ago it would have been a true
miracle because of her illness and seizures. All of her life she's
been told she was weak and sickly. Doctors couldn't figure out what
was wrong, and some even had the audacity to tell her it was all in
her head when it clearly was not. She's had a dream though. She's
wanted to run a home taking care of special needs kids, fostering and
adopting them. She's had that dream ever since I've known her. Doctor
after doctor told her that it wouldn't be possible because of her
illness (which we later learned was Celiac and a spinal curvature,
and finally got under control through diet and chiropractic). The
thing about my wife is that she's a Steve Rogers. She doesn't give
up. She's the person that would run to the grenade to save people and
not away from it. I have absolutely no doubt that she's the right
person to run that home that we've talked about so many times. Both
God and I know what's inside of her.
St. Paul wrote that God uses the weak
and sickly things of the world to put to shame the things which are
strong. He doesn't need the strongest or the fastest or the smartest.
He can fix all of that. He just needs the person who will cooperate
with Him and trust Him. God takes the Steve Rogers of the world and
turns them into superheroes.
No comments:
Post a Comment