FILE (AP)
Marvel’s release of Captain America: Civil War is the most recent superhero movie to blow up the box office. Rotten tomatoes gave it a 90 percent rating, and it had the fifth highest domestic opening in history at $181.8 million.
That got me thinking about how much we not only love but also need superheroes in our lives. They use their superhuman powers to protect the innocent or vulnerable people of our society, and we love that ideal. We can’t get enough of it. We long to have a relationship with a powerful being that is able to save the helpless people in the world.
Hollywood is no different. Just look at all the superheroes that have shown up on the big screen recently: Superman, Thor, the Hulk, Batman, Wonder Woman, Ironman, Spiderman—and on and on.
As kids growing up in Long Island NY, my brothers Mark, Don, and I used to take turns being Superman, Spider-Man, or Gigantor (a big flying robot that was really strong). Like all kids, we were automatically attracted to them. It’s like our need for a superhero was hardwired into us.
We long to have a relationship with a powerful being that is able to save the helpless people in the world.
As we look around us, we see injustice, pain, and suffering, and we know it’s not right. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. We all have a longing to know that there is something bigger and more powerful than us out there, able to bring about the justice we yearn for, and an end to pain and suffering. That is the heart of God.
The Bible says that righteousness and justice are the foundations of God’s character [Psalm 89:14]. Everything He does is based on—“founded” on—those two things: righteousness and justice. Nothing He does is evil or wrong. In fact, everything He does opposes evil.
By definition a hole is an empty opening in something, a hollow space.
There’s a hole in our hearts, and it causes most of the pain, confusion, and dissatisfaction in our lives—because our hearts weren’t meant to be empty. And our heart breaks when we look around and see the world in chaos. We try to fill that hole with relationships, success, or possessions. But the big secret is that we won’t be satisfied by anything other than God. We were meant to know God, and we can only be fulfilled in life once we do. He is the only one who can establish the justice we so deeply desire.
I believe superheroes scratch the inner itch we have for justice and salvation from the troubles of this world. But with superheroes, our relief ends once the credits begin to roll.
In the end, what we truly yearn for is to be with God. My hope for you is that you don’t settle for a counterfeit, but that you fill your heart with the one thing that will satisfy it: a relationship with God.
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