One of my kid’s favorite movies is The Incredibles. The Incredibles is a Pixar animated film about super heroes that are forced into retirement under a government witness protection program because of mounting lawsuits against them. 
One of the endearing aspects of the movie for adults is that it shows the “Supers” as ordinary average people. In forced retirement, Mr. Incredible marries Elastigirl and they raise three children in their suburban home while Bob (Mr. Incredible) works as a claims adjuster for an insurance company. They have the same problems that most people do: financial stress, marital stress, parental stress, job stress, etc. They try rather unsuccessfully to fit into mainstream Middle America as ordinary citizens, but, of course, the reality of it is that they are not “ordinary;” they are extraordinary people trying to live ordinary lives. But they are absolutely miserable (especially Mr. Incredible) because they weren’t created to be ordinary. They were created to be extraordinary – to leap tall buildings in a single bound… smash through walls… and defeat evil villains.You, too, are probably miserable stumbling through your ordinary, vanilla, status-quo life because you weren’t created to be “ordinary” or “normal.” You were created to be extraordinary! You were made to be Incredible.
Last Sunday, I talked about Joshua and God’s command to him to “Be strong and courageous!”
Courage to face our fears comes from knowing who God is and knowing who we are as God’s children and that no matter what happens, overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus Christ. And the only way to overcome fear is to let Christ overcome you.
Joshua had many reasons to be afraid. And he had many reasons to be weak. Indeed, compared to the armies they would soon be going up against, Joshua and his people were incredibly weak. Joshua needed to be physically strong, but he also needed to be strong emotionally and spiritually to lead his people.
Like courage, strength comes from God. Verse 5 says, “I will not fail you or abandon you” and verse 9 says, “The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua is commanded to be strong – not that he has to pull up his pants and muster the strength himself, but rather that he just has to believe that God will not fail him, will not abandon him, and will be with him wherever he goes. Strength comes from knowing who God is and where God is – that He is on our side.
As a kid, one of my favorite Bible stories was that of Samson (Judges 13-16). Samson was the strongest man who ever lived. He did amazing things like kill a lion with his bare hands, tear a city gate off its hinges, and kill a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey – you know super-hero-type stuff – which is why the story appeals so much to boys. But this is no Sunday School story. It’s more like a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s got action, violence, sex, and betrayal – which is why the story appeals to men who used to be boys.
In popular renditions of the story you get the idea that Samson had this long flowing hair that was never cut and that was somehow magically the source of his strength. And it’s true that God commanded him never to cut his hair and when his hair did get cut, he was as weak as an ordinary man. But listen to what the Bible says about his strength:
Judges 13:25 – “The Spirit of the Lord began to take hold of [Samson]” (as he was growing up).
14:6 – “The Spirit of the Lord powerfully took control of [Samson] and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands.”
14:19 – “Then the Spirit of the Lord powerfully took control of [Samson]… and he killed 30 men.”
15:14 – “The Spirit of the Lord powerfully took control of Samson and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax… Then he picked up a donkey’s jawbone… and killed a thousand [men] with it.”
16:20 – (After Delilah shaves his head) “He didn’t realize the Lord had left him.” His strength wasn’t gone because his hair was gone, but because he sinned and the Lord left him.
16:28 – (Samson in prison is brought out as entertainment for the masses) “Then Samson prayed to the Lord, ‘Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time…’ Then Samson put his hands on the center pillars of the temple and pushed with all his might… and the temple crashed down” and killed 3,000 people, including Samson.
Samson’s hair wasn’t magical. It was a symbol of his obedience to God, and as long as he obeyed, God gave him tremendous strength. But once he disobeyed, God left him and let him suffer the consequences. But he didn’t abandon him forever, did He? No God is the God of 2nd chances and He empowered Samson to kill more enemies in his dying than he did in his living.
As I was reading this story again this week, it reminded me of my favorite super hero when I was a kid: The Incredible Hulk. (In fact, I’m quite sure that the creator of The Incredible Hulk drew inspiration from Samson). I never read the hulk comics, but The Incredible Hulk TV show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno was on when I was kid and that really impacted me quite a lot. It made it more real than the comic books and Saturday morning cartoons.
There are different sorts of superheroes. There are those who are just ordinary people, like Batman. Batman doesn’t have any special powers. He’s just a regular old millionaire who can afford all the latest gadgetry and technology to help him fight crime. Probably the largest class of superheroes are those who are born with their powers (these often come from alien planets), like Superman. Superman is super, but he’s not really a man. He’s an alien who was born with the super powers that he possesses. Then there are those superheroes who are ordinary joes until they suffer some sort of freak accident, like Spiderman, who was bit by a radioactive spider that transferred it’s spider strength and senses to Peter Parker. Then there’s The Incredible Hulk. Like Spiderman, the Hulk was created as the result of a science experiment gone wrong. But that’s where the similarities end, because unlike superheroes like Spiderman, Superman, and most (if not all) of the superheroes who have possess their super powers all the time, the Hulk’s strength only comes periodically, when ordinary scientist David Banner gets angry. Then the weak, vanilla, status-quo scientist becomes incredible – capable of unmatched strength, even stronger than Superman (that’s debatable, I suppose). In the TV show, David Banner is ordinarily a weak little coward. But when rage overtakes him, he transforms into an incredible fearless, strong unstoppable monster.
In real life, of course, there are no such things as super heroes. And, contrary to popular belief, there are no such people as “Super Christians.” There are only ordinary Christians who, like Joshua and Samson, can do extraordinary things by the power of God; ordinary average people who become incredible when empowered by God’s Spirit.
Sometimes we get trapped thinking that the Bible is a bunch of stories about super heroes who did all of these incredible things. But the truth is that the stories in the Bible are about ordinary people like you and me who God gave the strength and courage to do extraordinary things. And that same strength is available to each one of us because we serve the same God.
We are not like Superman or Superwoman who have incredible innate strength. We are more like the Incredible Hulk – ordinary men and women with many flaws and weaknesses that by the Spirit’s power can do incredible things. We can face trials and temptations and struggles that no ordinary person could endure, and not only endure them, but be content and even joyous in them, because God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
Just because you’re not a super hero doesn’t mean you can’t be INCREDIBLE.
