Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Kingdom is like.... Captain America

I will not ruin the new movie release of Captain America for you bc I have not yet seen it. I, like you, have only seen the trailer but there is one scene from the trailer that so moved me because it reminded me of God and what He values in His Kingdom. In this particular scene, a military officer and a scientist are walking through a bootcamp of soldiers in training and they are talking about the qualifications and type of man they need to be a candidate for the new super soldier experiment. The officer unexpectedly throws a grenade into a crowd of men and the skinniest, most unlikely hero dives on the grenade to save the other soldiers from being harmed. Turns out, the grenade is fake but the test was real. The skinny guy ends up being the candidate and eventually...Captain America.


I love the message that this scene conveys because it reminds me of all of the 'unlikely heroes' that God uses in His Kingdom. God, like, but far superior to, the super soldier program, can provide all of the strength, ability, and skill for the calling. The things that we in the world value are exterior things....things that God can add to any man at any time because He is God. The beauty of it all is that Captain America was Captain America before he had the powers and the shield and the cool costume because he already possesed a hero's heart. The heroes of God's Kingdom in the Bible had a hero's heart first, and then God added the powers and miracles as they were neeeded. If we are to be heroes to the broken world around us, we must first seek to have a Kingdom heart and then "all these things (strength, miracles, and maybe even a cool costume) will be added to you as well."