I once had a friend who was never moved in the face of trial, she never showed any signs of emotion in any way and it intimidated most people. The first day I saw her cry left my mouth agape it wouldn’t close. She acted so perfect but she was just like you and her history? She was the ugly duckling, the one everyone liked to pick on, the lonely one. There seems to be a lot about our history that we do not like talking about, that dark part so embarrassing, disgusting and gives an awful feeling. But either way we try to hide or overlook it, it’s just part of us, it can never go away and you know why? You can not dispute the fact that you changed over the years, you made mistakes, you hit a few, and made friends or enemies and one way or the other something changed within you.
A child for example is born with the thought that he or she is loved and appreciated by everyone like mother shows, her feeling is “everyone loves me”. But then by the time the child is out to the world and people start to judge, now she knows “I have enemies”. As the child grows on, he realizes people grow, people do negative things, people help and now she’s standing right here, not the same person she was yesterday or the day before. It’s just like viewing the valley from the mountain.
Our heroes, mentors, people we love and admire the most. We feel they are so perfect and make no mistakes. Only a few got to their history and check how they truly started most of them started out as never do wells, people who had been given up on, people who wanted to be the coolest but always the ones who would never be. I remember a fat girl I used to know walking down the street. People would laugh at her and call her names. Surprisingly she turns out to be me! We were never enough, never good enough, never smart enough, never strong enough, never beautiful enough but that was the past. Look at us today, we are everything they never thought we’d be, everywhere people never dreamed we’d reach.
So now here’s the question- is the world looking for a superman or a looser man? When you picked your mentor, were you thinking of his successes or how he became successful? Sometimes we forget that we are all humans and we give others an expectational height too high to reach. Talk beauty queens and kings, always fabulous and so perfect yet in all a man couldn’t find one so perfect. So what is it in imperfection that makes it so perfect? Anyone who watched the superman movie would know he was just superman but in his true life he was just the geeky loser! We just cannot pass this without talking about our super hero as Christians which is Jesus.
A lot people know He was the son of a carpenter, He probably made some little chairs or boxes while watching His father work. A man told a class how he had decided to learn a trade while his institution was on a strike and he opted for carpentry and within a week, he was out! I remember singing songs of how Jesus was born as a kid but it didn’t really hit me until much later when I grew older- He was actually born in a manger! Near horses, no comfortable bed to sleep on, just a star!
A lot of us who were teased as kids grew up to be better by working on our inadequacies but Jesus was teased as a man, everyone except a few was not on His side. They picked a hardened criminal who probably might have broken heads and taken what’s not his over Jesus who just wanted things to be seen in a more profitable perspective! You could be rejected by all but then you would do something wonderful and suddenly become popular, but Jesus did miracles, he healed people and He was hated the more, but He was superman at last! You know the story don’t you?
Truth is, no one really wants to hear of how fabulous your life history is, the world is filled with hurting hearts and the last thing people need is to be made to feel inferior than they are. They want to hear of your mistakes and how you overcame them all to become what you are today. The Bible says “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” there are lots of prostitutes, pornographers, drunks, drug addicts, masturbators, alcoholics and scammers out there too shrunken, they want out but they can not. So if you have been through it, why not say it loud and how you conquered through Jesus.
The world is not looking to be made to feel worse, in denial or just one more thought they are not good enough. We do not want a superman who covers his sin but a sinner who as been through the ups and downs and has come out victorious not by you, me or the world but through Christ Jesus. Shalom.