There were 29 Superhero films released in the last five years and there are 33 more scheduled for release in the next five years. Oh, and thats not counting the additional 33 Superhero based television shows created since 2012.
Our generation has an almost obsessive fascination with hero origin stories. Why? Partially because they are great stories but I think it is so much more than that. We have a desire to be something special, to rise above our dire circumstances, to be chosen.
And I think somewhere deep down we fear that we can't rise above our circumstances; that maybe we become defined by them.
That our sorrows, and inadequacies, and failures, and losses, and body shapes, and jobs, and houses, and finances, and mental health issues, and abilities, and grades, and family, and fears become who we are. That they ARE who we are.
So we surround ourselves with tales of ordinary people in terrible situations who were able to get out and become extraordinary, and we hug them close like a cinematic comfort blanket. We need to believe that there is hope of winning the game even when we are dealt a terrible hand.
My sister-in-law sent me this short, little poem on Monday when I felt like I was drowning in the mire of cancer and grief and depression and hospitals.
“where
you are
is not
who
you are. ”
It's tempting in this season of my life to feel like I AM DEFINED by my really depressing situations. Like people look at me and all they see is that girl who lost her dad, or who is caring for her mother-in-law during radiation, or who miscarried, or who is unemployed. Like I look at myself and all I see is someone who is wasting their education, and who only puts on makeup and real pants about twice a week, and who can't engage in a casual conversation anymore.
Sometimes where we are starts to feel like who we are.
But listen here beloved: You are not your circumstances. You will not be here forever. You are chosen.
"But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted" (1 Peter 2:9-10, The Message).
We are the people of God. Chosen to do the good work of God. We are not defined by the hand we are dealt. And we may not have superpowers but we do have the chance to rise above the circumstances we are handed in this life.
"I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am" (Philippians 4: 12, The Message).
I can make it through anything in the One who MAKES ME WHO I AM.