Mere Men!

I will admit it. I am a fan of 'Super-Heroes'. I like Batman and Spiderman, and my favorite: Wolverine. I know what you might be thinking... and as my boys would say, "Dad, your inner Dork is coming out." My wife wouldn't let me go to the Comicon that was hosted in Phoenix last year. She was trying to protect me from myself. (If you don't know what the comicon is just google it.)

Most boys my age, grew up reading comic books where super-heroes were always fighting the bad guys. And most of us secretly wanted to posses some kind of super-power. (I actually did possess the power to transform my mother into a highly agitated dynamo of discipline; unfortunately I was usually on the receiving end of that discipline. Too bad I couldn't find a radioactive spider for a more productive super-power... But I digress.)

To only be Peter Parker, Clark Kent, or Bruce Wayne (Billionair Playboy notwhithstanding) without any superpower might have been tough. But it would be more than acceptable knowing they were only the front for their alter-egos just waiting for the 'bat-phone' to ring... then da, da, da daaaaa, the Super-hero comes out to save the day.

What we imaginative boys didn't want was to be mere mortals. To live normal, routine, obscure anonymous lives without a super-power was not our dream.

But here I am, in pretty good shape for a man my age; yet I have to wear glasses to read, I creek a bit in the morning, and have to watch what I eat, and I nap. No super-powers. I am living the life of a mere man. And that's where it gets dicey. It is a problem because the real truth is I am NOT a mere man.

In Christ I am something more. I have been empowered. God's Spirit lives in me, enabling me to be, to do more than I am humanly possible. And if you are in Christ, you also are empowered. And we don't even have to wear spandex tights and a cape. (OK, maybe that's just TMI - but you get the point).

We (well I shouldn't accuse you. I for one anyway) don't always live up to the power that is mine. Paul had to chastise the Christians in Corinth for the way they were living; arguing, sinning, fighting, dividing... He asked that when they were doing all that, "Are you not acting like mere men?"

We who follow Christ sometime forget the "supernatural power" that is ours through the Holy Spirit. We are like Clark Kent who can't find a phone-booth. So we just stay in 'mere man mode'; arguing, sinning, fighting, dividing...

Well no more! I'm going to start living like a supernatural man instead of like a mere man. I hope you will too.

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given
for the common good."
1 Corinthians 12:7

It's Spirit Man... da da da daaaaa