Thursday, September 5, 2013

Track 8 Devotional - Last Son

     He jets through the sky at speeds the eye can barely follow, passing through cloud banks and darting around mountain peaks. He looks down and though he is far above the city he can see every person clearly, thousands of them going about their daily business, leading ordinary lives. This morning alone he has saved two of them from being run over by cars, caught a falling steel girder before it crushed a lady and the baby in the stroller she was pushing, used his breath to put out a fire that was consuming a ten-story office building, and caught a school bus filled with middle school students that had been forced off of the large bridge leading into the city before the vehicle hit the water below. It is like this everyday. The people walk headlong into disaster and when death looms near he is the one that hears the screams and must react. What haunts him is the moments that haven't happened but someday might. He can crush marble into powder in his mighty hands, but what will he do on the day he faces a weight he cannot lift? What will he feel on the day that he isn't fast enough? What will they think of him on the day he comes face to face with his limit... and it defeats him?

ABOUT THE SONG

     Casey and I are unashamed geeks... we are comic junkies. When Casey wrote "Last Son" it was his exploration of the question "What would faith look like for Superman?" If you had so much power, a god among men, what need would you have for a savior. This song was the answer. Superman (the Last Son of Krypton) is an alien, in this world but not of this world. He is a hero yes, but he is also an ideal... a symbol... above all else, Superman is an example.There are so many ways that the superman character  can be applied to the Christian life. We are also not of this world.

John 15:19--If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Like Superman we gain strength from a source of light... not the sun, but the Son of God. However, the application the song focuses on is not our strength as Christians but our limits and how we should handle them.

APPLICATION
     Imagine the weight of responsibility that would come with the cape. How heavy would the emotional weight of that symbolic "S" be? Many of us find ourselves in positions of responsibility. As parents, as siblings, as ministers... in all of these roles we find ourselves carrying upon our shoulders the weight of another person's world at times. That weight can be overwhelming and can give way to fear. How many times have you been afraid that you simply won't be strong enough? In the song, we find superman taking those fears and handing them to the only hero who is truly without limits. Jesus Christ. No amount of heroics can save a soul, only Christ could accomplish that. Our message to you is this. If you hold yourself solely responsible for the lives of others you set yourself up for failure. The best way to protect your loved ones is to place them in God's hands. A you read this many of you are juggling the same fears and stresses that I have described... you have shed tears of worry over whether you can afford to pay this months bills or to even feed your family. You have laid awake at night shredding your nerves over the fear that you haven't done enough, worked enough, studied enough and that because of that you have let someone down. Here is the Good News. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness and that His grace is sufficient for us. You don't have to be strong because He is. You don't have to be super. You are already being a hero to your family and friends just by living a godly example in front of them. 
     So, weary brother or sister. Lay your burden down. You don't have to save the world or carry it. 

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