Only Superman Can Fly

Please forgive the length of time between blog entries, my friends. I told you in my very first blog to expect such inconsistency! Books and reading have become one of my passions over the past few years. Out of the darkest, most broken times in my life, strong truths from the pages of not only scripture, but dozens of inspired writings from various authors have brought me out of my despair and provided insight and wisdom just exactly at the moment I needed them. So I offer you an excerpt from a book I'm reading by an amazingly insightful guy named Ed Gungor. The book is "Religiously Transmitted Diseases - Finding the Cure When Faith Doesn't Feel Right." Publisher: Nelson Ignite/Thomas Nelson Publishers; Copyright 2006. I highly recommend it! This small portion speaks into changing our perspective on what "living the Christian life" by faith really means. We (I) have spent so much of my life spinning my "spiritual wheels," while going absolutely nowhere because I have (like the author suggests) put an extra "o" in the word "GOD." I've focused, in my own fallible flesh, on being "good," rather than on relying on God and what He has already done through the finished work of Christ. Happy reading! (buy the book!)

Chapter 3 - The Deadly "O" - God Is Not for Sale
Only Superman Can Fly
Only Superman can fly. But Lois had to discover that on her own.

In the second Superman movie that came out in the 1980s, Superman took Lois Lane flying with him. Early in the scene, Lois clung tightly to Superman, refusing even to look down. But as they flew around for a while, she became more and more confident. Slowly, she stopped clinging so desperately to Superman and began to stretch out her own arms, imitating him and pretending she could fly. Soon she forgot that her flight was only possible because of her connection to Superman. She inched out to the tips of his fingers, and then, suddenly, she lost connection and dropped like a stone! Superman swooped to catch her, and the meaning is clear: only Superman can fly.
In the arena of faith, only the God-man, Jesus, can fly. People can't. There is no way humans will ever be able to pull off divine goodness. That stuff is from another world. True, if you get up real high (really, really, really try to live right) and jump, you will have the illusion of flight, but it doesn't end well.
Discipleship is not about teaching people how to fly. Discipleship is about teaching people how to stay connected with Jesus, the only real Superman who ever lived. We have to fight to not make faith about self.