What is a Christian?

‘No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again! 

Sometimes I just want it to stay saved, you know? For a little bit. 

I feel like the maid: “I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean …for, for ten minutes?!   Please?” ‘

– Mr. Incredible  (Bob Parr)

That quote is from one of my favorite movies, Pixar’s The Incredibles.  If you haven’t seen it, fix that egregious error and go rent it.  The movie is about a family of super-heroes.  Prior to getting married and having kids, Bob and Helen Parr defended the world as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, two of the world greatest Super-Heroes.    But for various reasons they get used to living as Bob and Helen and stop thinking of themselves with regards to their true identity.  They begin to think of themselves as simply their secret (weaker) identities.  They became ‘normal’, a guy who works in the insurance industry, a home maker, a Mom and Dad, both just trying to get by as they deal with the hassles of everyday life.  Tuesday is ‘left-overs for dinner’ day.  Every week, the same grind.

Eventually, Bob gets tired of living in the mundane (don’t we all?) and starts secretly doing secret hero stuff, but he does it behind Helen’s back.  Eventually, Bob’s desire for the active life of a “Super” leads him into trouble.  Helen discovers something is going on and then learns that Bob has lost his job, that he has an entire secret life of activities and trips she doesn’t know about, and suspects he might be cheating on her.  She gets focused on her pain, and is crying over a cup of coffee with her friend Edna.  It’s a great moment of self-pity for Helen.  A moment that we call can relate to.  She doesn’t know what’s happening, she just knows that she’s discovering that her whole ‘life’ is not what she thought it was.  Edna, being a good friend, is happy to let Helen vent her pain (we all need to do that with a friend sometimes), but eventually Helen wails “What am I going to do?” to Edna, a question which Edna can’t believe she is hearing.

Edna jumps on the table and begins to smack Helen over the head with a rolled up newspaper, determined to put an end to this pity-party.  To Edna, acknowledging the pain is one thing, but choosing to wallow in it and not deal with the problem is unacceptable.

“What are you talking about?!?” she cries.  “You are Elastigirl!  My God! Pull yourself together! (smack smack) What will you do?   Is…is…is this a question?  You will show him that you remember that he is Mr. Incredible! And you will REMIND him, who YOU are! Well!.. You know where he is… Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win!    And call me when you get back, dahling, I enjoy our visits.”

THAT my friends is what being a christian is about.

It’s so easy for each of us to forget that we are more than just the weaker identities we live in every day.  Each of us sometimes forgets that we are God’s personally chosen hero.

We (yes!  Even you!) are tasked to save our part of the world from a wretched and powerful Super Villain and deliver it back into God’s heroic plan of salvation and redemption.  Each of us has been granted unique and special powers (gifts), and those powers are supernaturally magnified via the Holy Spirit.  We are the physical and spiritual embodiment of that a true Super Hero is.  We can change the course of mighty rivers, move mountains into the sea, raise the dead, fly on wings of eagles…. But we forget that.  We get lost in the daily identities we play every day.

But the christian walk is supposed to be there to remind us of what we truly are.  What we are sent to do.  We as Christians should remind each other, that we can never be truly happy until we are DOING what we were made to do.

If you see someone down, frustrated, and hurting, remind them of what the situation really is.  You might not always have to smack them with a newspaper, but show them that you remember who they are.  Remind them who YOU are.  Then, confront the problem.  Fight!  Win!  And then… have a cup of coffee and enjoy the fellowship of a good friend that will remind you that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Be Christ to them