Zero or Hero?

I posted this video over on my personal blog because pretty much I'm a fan of the tv show Heroes and this vid made me split my gut with laughter.


The thing is, I started to reflect a little bit more about the show and about our identity as apostles of Christ. For those of you who are not familiar with Heroes, the show follows a motley group of people who slowly discover that they each have unique special powers that enable them to do something spectacular and heroic. One person can fly, another read thoughts, and another can mimic the powers of other heroes that he knows.

In some ways, the conceit of heroes--that there are individuals who possess super powers and who must grow in their acceptance of their true identity to help save the world--is somewhat analagous to the reality of the Christian life.

Rather than possessing super powers, each of us has been given charisms, spiritual gifts that allow us to be supernaturally effective agents of God's purposes on the earth. Unlike the heroes on TV, we don't own these gifts, whose origins are found in God Himself. Rather, we are stewards of these charisms, and part of being that Good Steward means journeying to discover more truly our identity as sent ones, apostles of Christ, and discovering the particular vocation He has given each of us.

Like the heroes on TV, we have been called together to help save the world--to help every man, woman, and child meet the Risen Christ and labor to redeem the very social structures and cultures of the world, rendering them more authentically human.

The Enemy would like nothing more than for us to go on believing that we are zeros--that we don't matter, that we labor simply under our own fallen and limited powers, servants of a distant, uncaring God who forces us to fend for ourselves amidst the pain and suffering of the world.

The reality is, however, quite different.

Sure, I have the meaningless ability to balance a sheet of paper on one finger (or the back of my knuckles), but I'm also a precious child of God who has been given the power, jurisdiction, and authority to stand in the place of Christ to bring His love and healing into the world.

We're all called to be heroes.

It's time that we took our place!