Spiderman II: Taking Responsibility
04.26.05
Pastor Mark Batterson
This evotional concludes the God @ the Box Office series. To check out old evotionals, visit the evotional archive in the resources section @ www.theaterchurch.com.
I love different superheroes for different reasons. Let me tell you why I like Spiderman. It’s because his alter ego, Peter Parker, is ordinary in every way. He is kind of geeky and sort of wimpy. He gets fired from his pizza delivery job. He is late for classes. And he is awkward with the opposite sex.
One of my favorite scenes in Spiderman II is the elevator scene. He is losing his superpowers so he has to take the elevator to the ground level like normal people. And he strikes up a conversation about his spidey suit. He admits that it is sort of itchy and it rides up in the crotch. Is it just me, or do you feel an affinity for any superhero who gets wedgies?
When we hear the word “hero” we tend to think of someone who is extraordinary in some way—extraordinarily gifted or extraordinary smart. But Spiderman reminds us that heroes come in ordinary packages.
No one was more heroic than Jesus. But Jesus came in an ordinary package. I love the way Isaiah 53:2 describes him: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire.” Jesus came in the form of a carpenter. He had calloused hands. He got splinters. I even think he missed the nail and hit his thumb a time for two!
Oswald Chambers said, “It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God: but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things.”
Last week I heard best-selling author and business guru, Marcus Buckingham, tell a story that really intrigued me. He was doing some consulting work for a resort company. And he was amazed at the productivity and creativity of the housekeepers who cleaned the hotels where guests stayed. While guests were at the theme park during the day, the housekeepers wouldn’t just clean the rooms. They would actually take some of the stuffed animals that the kids would leave in the room and arrange them in scenes to surprise the kids or play with their imaginations.
I don’t know about you, but I hate cleaning. When someone says, “Let’s clean” I usually pretend like I didn’t hear them. It’s not my idea of fun. Cleaning is hard work. It’s dirty work. It can be pretty monotonous and dull. But it was something more to this housekeeping crew!
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ’There lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
Heroes come in ordinary packages. The widow who gave two mites was a hero. The boy who gave five fish and two loaves was a hero. The woman who anointed Jesus with the alabaster jar of perfume was a hero.
This week, NCC had about twenty ordinary heroes in our midst. We had a group of guys from Calvary Church in Naperville, Illinois doing an extreme office makeover at 205 F Street. They did an absolutely amazing job renovating our office space. But it wasn’t their skilled work that really impressed me. It was their spirit. These guys were up around five o’clock in the morning and they worked some nights until close to midnight. Not only did they give us a week of their time, but they did it on their own nickel. They basically paid to serve! If that’s not heroic I don’t know what is!
Here’s what I’m trying to say: don’t allow what you can’t do to keep you from doing what you can. Don’t allow who you aren’t to keep you from being who you are. Be exceptional at ordinary things!
A Second Longer
Let me make an observation. I’m not sure that Spiderman is the true hero in his movie. I think Aunt May is every bit as heroic as her nephew, Peter Parker. If you saw the first installment of Spiderman, you know that Peter Parker has a guilty secret. He was responsible for the death of his Uncle Ben, Aunt May’s husband. His non-action led to Uncle Ben’s death. And he’s haunted this guilty secret. In Spiderman II he has the courage to confess to Aunt May. But the courage to confess is superseded by the courage to forgive. And Aunt May doesn’t just forgive him. She still believes in him! In fact, her “pep talk” changes the trajectory of his life by causing him to embrace his superpowers again.
Aunt May says, “Everybody loves a hero. Years later they will tell how they stood out in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer.”
I love that description because it reminds me of a distinguished tax collector named Zacchaeus who climbed a sycamore-fig tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus. It reminds me of the prostitute who crashed a party to pour a jar of perfume on Jesus. It reminds me of four friends who bored a hole in a ceiling so Jesus could heal their paralyzed friend.
Did you know that the word “crowd” is repeated 101 times in the gospels? Jesus spent most of his ministry in remote places and he still couldn’t keep people away! They walked around lakes. They went without food. They pressed through crowds. And they traveled from foreign countries.
My question is: why? What was so magnetic about Jesus? I think it is precisely what Aunt May said. People will stand out in the rain to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 12:20? “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Jesus was a hope dealer. He taught people to hang on a second longer!
The Slingshot Effect
Back in the 1970’s, NASA was trying to figure out how to explore deep space with limited fuel. They decided to harness the laws of physics by using the gravity of different planets. They developed a maneuver called a gravity assist. Engineers plotted flight plans so their spacecrafts would enter into the orbit of different planets and use their gravitation force to change their trajectory. Let me give you an example.
The first spacecraft to experience a gravity assist was NASA’s Pioneer 10. In December 1973, it approached a rendezvous with Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. It was traveling at 9.8 kilometers per second, but following its passage through Jupiter’s gravitational field; it sped off into deep space at a speed of 22.4 kilometers per second. What the Pioneer 10 experienced is called the slingshot effect.
Have you ever spun around on one of those playground merry-go-rounds and let go? You experienced the slingshot effect. Have you ever been at the end of the line in a game of crack the whip? You experienced the slingshot effect. The slingshot effect is all about changing trajectory.
So last week I was having coffee with a friend and they likened relationships to the slingshot effect and it made so much sense to me. I can think of a dozen people—my parents, pastors, professors, friends, mentors, authors—who have pulled me into their orbit and used the gravity of their knowledge or character or vision to slingshot me to where I am in my spiritual journey.
Now let me make an observation: we all need an Aunt May. We all need someone who believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. That’s what parents are for. That is the gift my parents gave me. And even if your parents didn’t give you that gift, you can give that gift to your children. We have a family joke that if I was playing Michael Jordan one-on-one in basketball, my mom would place her bets on me. And it wouldn’t even be out of loyalty. It’d be because she genuinely thinks I’m better than he is! We all need someone who believes in us like that.
Hebrews 10:24 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”
Each of us has a unique circle of relationships and what we need to recognize is that God brings different people into our orbit for different reasons. But our network of relationships is anything but happenstance. God wants us to share our faith and share our life with the people in our orbit. He wants us to do a gravity assist. He wants us to slingshot people on their spiritual journeys into eternity with Him. But here’s the catch. It doesn’t just happen! Good things don’t generally happen by default.
Hebrews 10:24 says, “Let us consider.” We need a game plan. It’s all about intentionality. Here’s a little homework: identity one person this week and say something or do something to spur them on. Then keep doing it until it becomes part of the rhythm of your life.
Strong Focus
At the heart of Spiderman II is an identity crisis. Peter Parker is trying to figure out who he’s going to be. He has to choose between Spiderman and Peter Parker.
I love the Doctor Office scene when Peter Parker goes in for a checkup. He is losing his powers and the doctor says, “Everything looks very ok. My diagnosis: it’s up here.” Then he asks Peter an interesting question about Spiderman: “What does he think of himself?” Peter says, “That’s the problem. He doesn’t know what to think.”
That’s always the problem.
All problems are mental problems at their deepest level. I think the solution to 90% of our problems is refocusing on the right things.
It’s a subtle subplot in the movie, but Peter’s problems are in his head. He is filled with doubt. He is second-guessing himself. He is questioning his purpose. His mind is playing games with him. The solution to the problem is somewhat understated in the script, but it is a profound truth. Peter says, “Strong focus on what I want.”
There is a principle in Philippians 4:8 that will absolutely revolutionize your life if you put it into practice. It’s the prescription for whatever ails you: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Most of us buy the bill of goods the enemy tries to sell us that the solution to all of our problems is external or circumstantial. In other words, the locus of change is outside our control. But nothing in your life has to change externally or circumstantially for you to change. All you have to do is change your mind and it will change your life.
We have a core value in our family: your focus determines your reality. It boils down to this: what you focus on is what you get. If you focus on negative things your life will be filled with negativity. If you focus on noble things you’ll become noble. If you focus on right things you’ll become righteous. If you focus on pure things you’ll become pure. If you focus on admirable things you’ll become someone people admire. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
The Choice
Peter Parker had to make a choice. He could be plain old Peter Parker. Or he could be take responsibility and become who he was destined to be.
All of us face a similar choice. Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” We can choose our own path. Or we follow Christ.
At the end of this evotional series I want to present an opportunity to choose Christ. It’s as simple as praying a prayer like the prayer below. And that prayer will change the trajectory of your life. If you enter Christ’s orbit, it will slingshot you to places you never dreamed of.
Lord, I take responsibility for my sin. There will always be something wrong with me because I’m human. But I thank you for what Christ accomplished on the Cross. I believe he paid the penalty for my sin. I confess my sin and accept your forgiveness. And I won’t let what’s wrong with me keep me from worshipping what’s right about You. I am crossing the line of faith. I’m passing the point of no return. I’m making a choice. And I choose Christ. I choose to follow in His footsteps. Lead me where you want me to go!
If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to encourage you to tell someone about it. Email me or email a friend who can help you take the next step in your spiritual journey!
