Calling All Heroes

I’ve been reading this book called Superheroes and Philosophy. I really like it and it has got me thinking about my growing up. I wasn’t big into the superhero craze. I knew the basics. I enjoyed watching episodes of the old Batman series that starred Adam West. I went to see the Batman movies. I watched the Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers. Smallville was my first major craze I’d say.

I paid more attention to video games. Video games don’t really have superheroes unless they’re made off of a movie, TV show, or comic book. Instead, they’re just accounts of ordinary people that are doing super things. I once preached in a sermon that God isn’t looking for supermen. He’s looking for men who are super.

Yet I grew up with this dream that has been with me for a long time. I think many people sadly give up on this dream when they enter the work force or get married or make some major change. I hear people often talk about this pipe dream they had when they were kids and yet somehow, they let it die.

That is the dream to change the world.

A lot of us just think that the world is such a big place and what can we do? I don’t know. But can’t we do something? How many of us want to sit around and watch the world go the way it is? Especially considering that we hold the gospel. Do we really believe that the truth of Christ has the power to change the world?

I often see apologetics in this light. Peter Kreeft has said that apologetics is the closest one comes to saving the world. What does he mean? He means that we are the defenders of truth if we are apologists. If the truth is lost, then the world is lost with it. To fight for the truth is to save the world.

Thus, who am I? I’m one of the heroes in the story. I’m one of the ones out there fighting the fight. Someone is caught in sin or the Jehovah’s Witnesses are making rounds or someone at work is depressed or there is an atheist questioning the existence of God. The song plays in my head then of “Save Me.” This is time for those of us who know the truth to stand up.

Of course, I also realize my limitations. Take the venue of science for instance. I am not a specialist in scientific apologists and there are many atheists who could take me easily in that field. I realize that and I realize that I have allies that are. In the same vein, many of them come to me with philosophical difficulties. We all have to work together.

Maybe it’s not your forte to do apologetics. I have several friends who don’t go into that field, but they have been an immense help in other ways. When I have needed some encouragement because the battle is hard, and so many times it is, then they have been there. It’s not that the questions are necessarily difficult. It’s just that it can often be tedious and the energy one exerts in this can be exhausting. They are there. When my confidence is low, they pick me up.

If I and my apologist friends are the warriors on the front line, these are the clerics in the back, and they are essential. David said in 1 Samuel that those who stayed and guarded the camp deserved as much reward as those who went and fought.  He’s right. Those who are helping those of us out on the front lines are just as much participating in the fight and deserve just as much a reward.

If only this dream would catch fire in the church. Every hero has a secret identity. We do as well. Our identity though is to be revealed. We are to remove this cover and show that we are the vessels of God. We are the ones that he is dwelling in. We are the reflection of Christ on Earth.

Go out now. Recover that dream! Save the world!

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