I am beginning to notice a pattern here. There has been an increasing number of movies, tv shows, books, magazines and all kinds of other stuff that involve supernatural things, ie Superheroes, Vampires, Mermaids, Werewolves, Ghosts, Goblins, Witches, Hobbits, Creatures from the Black Lagoon and so on. Okay, honestly I haven't just noticed this, it's been happening for a while but I think the increase has been slow enough that it snuck up on us. Now all of a sudden when you go into a book or movie store it seems to be everywhere. Don't forget also that you can't browse through your TV Guide without seeing a show involving some kind of supernatural element on every station. Even the History Channel has programs of extra-terrestrial beings. It's getting kind of ridiculous.
Lately, in my personal time with God I have been praying for understanding. I have a knack for jumping to conclusions and claiming I know what people are thinking and making snap judgments based on my premature notions. So I have been asking for understanding, to peer into a situation and understand what is going on beneath the surface rather than jumping to conclusions.
So as I view the media driven world around me and I see the preoccupation we have with things that are superhuman, I wonder what this could mean. What is going on beneath the surface of our fascination with Vampires and Superheroes? In our culture and society today, why all of a sudden are we so taken with stories about such beings?
I believe that answer can be found in the bible. In Psalm 139, it says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The author is writing poetry here about how amazed he is at God's creation of man. Throughout all of history we have be amazed at ourselves and how our bodies function and operate. In the ancient world it was physical limitations, in the Renaissance it was our emotional and artistic frontier and in today's culture we are fascinated with our psychological boundaries.
However, I believe we as mankind have missed the other part of what the author of Psalm 139 was trying to express. Some scholars believe and have written that, that phrase "fearfully and wonderfully" could also be read "fearfully wonderful," describing God and his work on mankind. Either way you look at it only a "fearfully wonderful" God could "fearfully and wonderfully" create us.
So we got the part about how great we are created and what cool creatures we are...but we have totally missed the mark on exploring how great and cool God is and that is where I think all of this super, extra-human stuff is coming into play. We want so desperately to believe that there is something else out there. That is why fantasy material is so captivating. The thought of something greater than ourselves is appealing.
The problem is, there is something greater than us...He is called God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. We have looked inward for so long, mankind has tried to deny God for so long, that we don't see God is the simplest things anymore. The sunrise at the beach, the waves crashing on the shore, a neighbor doing a good deed, a trespasser being shown forgiveness when he or she doesn't deserve it, we can see God in every circumstance we come across in life. We can acknowledge how cool he is and how wonderful are his deeds but instead we put more credence in creatures that are figments of our God-given creative imagination. The church is not immune to this either. We have stopped looking to God for our everything and look to ourselves. Lest we forget it is God who will save the world and not us!!
I am not saying that reading books or seeing movies about these things are a bad but do they take up more time in your life than God? Do you give more energy to fantastical stories rather than the truth of God's word?
I like Superheroes and the like as much as the next guy but, friends I encourage you if you are looking for something that is greater than yourself...something superhuman, look to God. Give your life to Jesus. Living this life with God's Spirit inside you and the adventures He will take you on is greater than any story you could ever watch or read about. The power to do good works and bring people to a relationship with Jesus is the great superhuman story of all.
When will yours begin??
May our LORD be with you
Josh
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