Are You Waiting for Superhero Jesus to Fix Things?

After listening to Job complain for several chapters, God has had enough and asks a series of probing questions, reminding Job that, as creator of the entire universe, God can do absolutely anything. Although grasping that truth is great, there can be a downside. Because of God’s infinite power to change anything, you might passively wait for him to fix your problems rather than courageously face them.

My deepest problems stem from having grown up in an emotionally toxic family. I’ve written about this before. My dad was a mentally ill, emotionally abusive bully narcissist who particularly targeted me. Beyond that, almost every other man in the extended family suffered from either serious dysfunctionality or outright mental illness. Two of them committed suicide. As I’ve processed all this, I realize that a lingering impact is the still-pervasive feeling at the deepest level that whenever there is a relationship problem, it’s my fault. This has many implications.

The awesome counselor I met with about ten years ago told me on at least four occasions that someone with my background should be an alcoholic, some other kind of addict, unemployable, divorced three times, or abusive. The fact that I’m none of those is undeniable evidence of God’s grace. Praise him! However, despite my great progress, the residual impact of that wretched background will probably remain with me the rest of my life, at least to some extent.

Returning to my initial comments about God being able to do absolutely anything, I’ve only seen a few cases where he has instantly and completely delivered individuals from seemingly hopeless addiction or some other crisis-level problem. More typically, progress is slow and gradual as the Holy Spirit works in someone’s life. God could immediately erase all the scars of my past and completely heal that part of my life, but he hasn’t (yet). Instead, his preferred path seems to be giving me the grace and fortitude to work through problems bravely and wisely.

Several years ago, I was forced to confront a highly dysfunctional situation where someone was deeply hurting a third party. My prior experience with people like this told me the likelihood of a favorable outcome was tiny. In fact, the confrontation might make the situation far worse. Nevertheless, for the sake of the other person, I felt led to proceed. I had about a week to verify this approach and think through a strategy.

During that week, I remembered a dramatic scene from C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where one of the children (Peter) had to attack a ferocious wolf that was about to devour his sister Susan.

Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do. He rushed straight up to the monster and aimed a slash of his sword at its side.

A nightmarish battle ensues.  But finally, Peter

found that the monster lay dead and he had drawn his sword out of it and was straightening his back and rubbing the sweat off his face and out of his eyes.

Mind you, Aslan, who represents Christ, was right there watching the whole thing. He could have instantly vaporized the wolf, but instead he wanted Peter to experience the growth and exhilaration that comes from facing and attacking a terrifying situation.

This recollection confirmed that the potentially dangerous conversation was the right course to take. And for one of the first times ever, I saw God break through the hardness of someone’s heart. It bolstered my faith and confidence.

How about you? What would you say is the single, deepest issue in your entire life? Can you name it? Maybe no one else even knows about it. It could be an addiction, the lingering memory of a mistake made years ago, a hopeless circumstance, persistent depression, a degenerative disease, or any number of other things. In dealing with this problem, you have three choices:

1.       Do nothing, hoping it will fix itself

2.       Passively wait for Superhero Jesus to swoop down to instantly solve your problem

3.       Depending on the Holy Spirit, think and pray through a strategy to face your issue head-on, recognizing that the resolution probably won’t be instantaneous

Number 1 solves nothing, and you will remain “stuck,” allowing that problem to continue defining you. Number 2 can happen but rarely does.

I urge you to pursue number 3.