Superhero
superhero
[ soo-per-heer-oh ]
noun
a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman.
In A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Lloyd Vogel is a reporter to be feared. No one wants to be interviewed by a guy who is known to take a hatchet to everything and everyone he chooses to target with his writing. But Fred Rogers not only doesn’t fear him but relentlessly pursues him. The hunter becomes the hunted.
The assault on Lloyd’s heart and life by Fred Rogers eventually starts to turn the tide. Lloyd’s incredulous response to Fred turns to amusement and finally to deep respect. He ends up asking Fred’s wife an interesting question:
Lloyd Vogel: “How does it feel to be married to a living saint?”
Joanne Rogers: “If you think of him as a saint, then his way of being is unattainable. He’s not a perfect person. He has a temper. He chooses how he responds to that anger.”
Her comments stopped me in my tracks. It brought to mind some powerful teaching I sat under at a men’s event in Colorado many years ago. The speaker said that Jesus wasn’t a superhero. Meaning, he didn’t have superpowers and wasn’t superhuman. He was a person just like you and I, with one powerful distinction.
He was super-connected to his heavenly father.
His power.
His authority.
His ability to do the miraculous.
All sourced from his relationship with the Father.
So what does that mean for you and me? What did it mean for Fred Rogers? If we look at the life of Jesus, he offers some incredible clues. He said he only did what the Father told him. And the narrative tells us almost as much about his getting away to source the Father as it does about the stuff he did.
And then he says this,
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these…”
And in his ascension, he pretty much passes the baton on everything that needs to be accomplished and even grants the authority he had on to us as well.
If Fred Rogers was a saint, then his way of being is unattainable.
If Jesus Christ was a saint, then his way of being is unattainable.
Look a little closer at the biblical narrative, at some of the heroes of the bible, or even the life of Jesus. They aren’t superheroes, but ordinary people super-connected to the father. Super faithful. Super obedient. Super humble.
Most of us feel like we are the other guys and girls. Not exceptional, gifted, or extraordinary like the others. Nothing particularly special about us. It is a comforting fact to know that being truly special and maybe even super is so attainable. We all have the opportunity to be super-connected to the source of life that allows us all to be extraordinary.
Consider
Do you feel like your life and your days hold the opportunity for the extraordinary?
Do you feel a sense of power and authority in your leadership responsibilities?
Where are you sourcing that ability from?