Training for Heroes

I enjoy a good movie. My favorite movies are those with a hero. There’s something about watching a character overcome challenges and defy the odds that gives me encouragement and hope. I sympathize easily and so I think if they can do it, I can do it.

The trick in making a good movie isn’t just in the story telling but in the editing. You have to give each sequence just enough time to move the story along. You also have to pick the right sequences so that the story flows and makes sense. In hero movies there’s always one sequence that is rushed and given a montage and that’s the growth process. I think of Rocky as I write this and how he went into training for his big fight. What would take months of preparation to do was rushed and done in 5 minutes of screen time. With awesome background music I might add.

I am reminded of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 that reads;

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

There’s no greater hero in my life than Jesus. The Bible says that even He went through intense preparation before beginning his ministry. Right after receiving recognition and certification from God in heaven Jesus was lead into the wilderness and neither drank or ate for 40 days. Also in that time he was tempted and tormented by Satan, but He never submitted.

We cant fast forward through the growth processes in our lives like we see in movies. There’s no skipping to the end of our lives to when we are victorious. Oftentimes its not until the end that we can look back at all of our struggles and even our mistakes and start to make sense of our life. We begin to see how God orchestrated even the most messed up parts of our life to make us better, or better yet to allow us to help somebody. The only piece of advice I can offer is to embrace the struggle, but you don’t have to do it alone. Do it with Jesus, do it with praying saints, do it with the faith that no matter what, you win, in this life or in heaven.

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This writing was contributed by Nathan McKelvey