Super edition

    Ahh.. summer is here. As I shared before, there really are no seasons here in Hawaii.  It's always summer! But at least we get to experience it with the rest of the world for a little while. One of my favorite memories of summer  when I was growing up is going to the library (big surprise) and  getting wrapped up in stories about adventures and living other lives by reading books that would take me to another time and place.  Ok, I still do that. My favorite genres included science fiction, mystery and adventure.   Summer was also for going to the movies and  I especially loved super hero comic movies! Today, being the mom of three boys I can't escape those avengers and guardians of the galaxy.  And who'd want to?  Ok, even if I wasn't a mom of three boys, I'd still do that too.   The one thing I've noticed that these movies and epic adventures have in common is that they all include some hero or heroine as the main character.  Almost always,  this hero didn't begin their story as a hero at all.   They were usually a 'normal person' just going along their 'normal lives' before they were transformed into their new true identity as a superhuman with supernatural capabilities. Their transformation usually involved going through  some trial or a lab experiment gone wrong.  Yet, it would be this very trial or shortcoming that would lead them to this revelation and transform them and their weaknesses into super powers in order to live out their true destiny for fighting against the dark forces of evil.


Before I came to accept Christ, I would look at other Christian believers as if I were on the outside  looking in.  I remember when a friend brought me to church and I would listen to the stories and testimonies of these spiritual heroes.     At the time, I didn't know what it meant to be 'Christian' or what that term 'believer' even meant but I knew that they, those nice goody Christian people that seemed to have it all together, THEY had something that I did not have.  What was it that they had? More knowledge?  Wisdom? A special ability? What was their secret super power?
Here I  was just a normal person who definitely did not have it all together. I was struggling with sin and addiction in my life.    I tried again and again to quit, to be a good person, and do good.  I would always fail.  My identity and self worth relied on my own ability to 'be good'  but I craved and longed for something more.  I knew I could not go on by my own mortal power and ability.
As I've come to learn in my own journey, it was God's love that saved me which I could not really understand until the day I opened my heart up to God and said, 'yes, God I am a sinner and need your help! without you a I am nothing, but you died for my sins and paid the price to wash my sins away'.
For that I am grateful and I don't have to place my self worth on my own ability or mistakes I made.   That was the day I received my new identity.  From that day on, my identity was in Christ as His child, forgiven and loved by God, called according to His purpose.  And that was the secret super power. Jesus is the hero!

352 days sober.  I had a crazy thought the other day. What if I was  meant to never drink alcohol at all?  What if I was meant to be a person that just chose not to drink or happened not to drink? I was meant to be someone else that God intended me to be?    A better me? Instead of being this person who sometimes drank, I was just meant to be a person did not drink alcohol and that was it,  and I was a better person for it.    I know this sounds obvious and overly simplistic but it reminded me of something.  It reminded me of being a superhero because I was meant to be someone else.  It was like the day I quit drinking was the day I realized my other true identity.   My identity was not in my past mistakes, or being an alcoholic. My identity was to be the person God had intended me to be.

 Of course, like the super heroes, I had to take a certain path to get to that place of learning my true identity.  This is always an ongoing journey, my friends. 
And like every super hero has its weakness, sometimes the human part of us gets in the way of living to our full potential that God intended.  Living the Christian life doesn't mean there is no struggle with sin.  I do not always have it all together.   There will always be evil forces to fight.  There will always be evil villains out there.  These villains may come in the form of doubt, mistrust, pride, temptation, anger and the list goes on as long as we live in this imperfect world.  But hope is not lost! There lives a hero and it is no secret. Jesus is the answer and through Him, God's saving grace forgives and empowers us.   I wonder how many of us are living up to our true destiny? Our full super hero potential?  Are you living the life that God had fully intended for you? 

We are Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them.  We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend in you.  How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.  --2 Corinthians 5: 20-21  MSG

Now go be your super self and live out your true destiny!