How To Be A Superhero

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.”

Luke 10:33

Almost everyone I know had a desire to be a super hero growing up. I think God placed the desire within the human heart as the majority of humanity really do want to make a difference in this world. Sadly, most give up on what some might consider a childhood fantasy due to people cutting us off, ripping us off or just blowing us off. It’s not hard to become cynical in this world but thank God for the superhero’s who possess a quality about them, not a natural ability but rather the attribute or characteristic of compassion.

It’s compassion that separates villains from super hero’s. Take the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Most read it and think the lesson Jesus is teaching is about human compassion or kindness and doing good for the less fortunate and though that is partially true, the over riding lesson is about biblical compassion which is deeper and is about loving people who hate you and who wouldn’t think twice about not helping you if you were in need. Thats why this parable Jesus taught “arrested” the mind of the lawyer with whom Jesus was speaking. The legal scholar of his day listened to the story Jesus told and he thought “love your neighbor” meant he had a responsibility to love his fellow Jews which he gladly did. The lawyer in the story personal belief was greater than just loving the people who lived in the house on either side of his own home or across the street or behind him. This lawyer thought his faith was pretty special, kind of like extra mile faith but unfortunately his love was limited to people who believed like he believed and fell way short of what Jesus was teaching here in developing superhero faith.

It was Anne Frank who wrote in her diary, “How wonderful it is that no one has to wait but can start right now to gradually change the world.” We understand from Jesus teaching that our neighbor is anyone we come in contact with, whomever we cross paths with in our travels throughout any given day. Sometimes it might be someone we know, even like, yet to have superhero faith is to love and care for people we most likely would consider our enemies because thats how they see us. I want you to think about something for a moment. The man in this story needed a miracle. He was probably praying for God to miraculously help him much like Jelly Roll sings, “I Need A Favor” when suddenly there comes along a Samaritan, not a friend but a foe who would the answer to his prayer, the miracle from God that he was praying for.
 
Do you want to develop super hero faith in your own life? If so pray something like this, “God use my life today to be the miracle someone else is praying for?” Pray and ask God to allow you to be the person who walks in when everyone else is walking out, to be the one who answers the phone when no one else will. Ask God to help you put your arm around the one no-one else want’s to be around. Be like Jesus and do something today for someone who can’t pay you back nor would they if they could. Superhero faith doesn’t do good expecting something good in return. Superhero faith is about loving people who aren’t like you and loving people who don’t even like you. Super hero faith requires super hero power and super hero compassion unlike the world knows of.

“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 18:24


I LOVE YOU!