My husband and I watched Avengers with our teenage son the other day. Truly, my favorite part of the movie was when Loki, the evil demigod dude says: “Enough! All of you are beneath me. I am a god, you dull creature and I shall not be bullied…”
Then the Incredible Hulk picks up Loki and smashes him into the floor like a rag doll and says, “Puny god.” I leapt out of my seat, whooped, and spilled Coke Zero all over the guy in front of me.
Funny that my hero in this film was the guy with extreme anger management issues who explodes in rage, becomes this monstrous green guy, and beats the crap out of the bad guys like nothing you’ve ever seen. I loved this!
Why? Because of the the universal message that we don’t have to take crap all of the time. That thought makes me happy.
Bad guys are everywhere, even bad guys, who in the name of religion, hurt good guys. I’ve seen it again and again. I’ve also seen Christians with true hearts for God, again and again, back down and get trampled on. I’m tired of it.
Power, strength, and wisdom are the stuff of superheroes. In the Avengers, superheroes with special powers are brought together in an attempt to save the world. The evil Loki tried to divide the good guys because he was smart enough to understand that divided, heroes are weakened.
Did our one true God, the Creator of the universe, give all the power and strength to bad guys? Oh come on! I don’t think so. I think we have our own supply of ammo. Why don’t we use it? I love these words from the Lord’s prayers: “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.” (yours = God’s).
This kingdom, the power and the glory belongs to God and to the good guys. Let us not be divided. Let’s use our gifts and talents and call upon the power, strength, and wisdom from God to really win battles.
And sometimes, whether it seems wrong or not, I believe we have to get angry and beat the crap out of the bad guys. But we must do it wisely. Even Christ got angry and pulled out the whips and chains. I’m not advocating anger and vengeance. I’m just thinking about this theme. I’m thinking that sometimes we need to unleash our anger, and with the power and strength of God with us, we need to stand for what is right and really smash the bad guys to smithereens.
Who are your bad guys? What evil threatens to destroy you and your loved ones? Maybe you need to get angry and call upon the power of God to truly fight the battle.
Great post! I love the fact that your drew it back to something relevant here and now.
Thanks for stopping by Rachel!
Excellent post ! It was an excellent movie. We saw it in IMAX 3-d and it was amazing.
Righteous anger properly channeled is still righteous 😉
Father, we saw it in 3D too. Loved that movie! I want to see it again!
Power, strength, and wisdom are the stuff of human beings too. If they’re parceled out sparingly, at least they have the capacity to startle and delight when we see them. I just had occasion to read Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, and it overflows with all three. And as to winning, sorry to quote a cliche, but “it ain’t over ’til it’s over.” And when it is, the Lord seems to be doing all the judging. I’d rather appear to lose here and win there than the reverse. Life is never as good as it should be, but evil never wins anything in the long run. Or so we would hope.
Absolutely James. It’s true. Ultimately God wins. He’s smart. And if we pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are powered with His strength and goodness to really help a suffering world. Yes, evil seems to win sometimes. And it’s quite annoying. But, we can accomplish so much with God on our side and we need to remember that.
Holly – I was thinking something along the same lines after seeing this movie. My take? If the Bible is true–it is–then I, too, am a super-hero. I am immortal. I can crush the head of the enemy. I wield a sword that cannot be destroyed. I may stumble but I will not fall headlong. The list of the endowed super powers we believers have goes on and on and on. And isn’t it wonderful to know that we have each others’ backs when the fighting gets intense?
Great post, Holly!
Your take is correct. We can call upon the power of God. As Thor had his hammer, Jesus had the nails. We can do so much if we call upon the power of God to help us.
Absolutely Becky. I feel that we often cower at the enemy. Like in the movie when everyone bows down to the enemy. We are superheroes, powered by God Almighty!
I agree
Thanks for stopping by Jim!
No worries- I found a bootleg clip of the bit you described. Chucked it up on my blog to give people a chuckle.
Cool! It’s awesome!!
Great food for thought, Holly. 🙂
Thanks, It’s personal today. I’m tired of people with wrong intent walking over the good guys. Sometimes, as Christians, I think we need to take a stand in the name of God and do the right thing.
Thanks Catherine. We Christians limit the power of God. I think we can do so much more if we call upon God’s power.
I love it….superheroes… thats what God wants, the church needs and men like…. women too!
Paul
Absolutely. As a wife of a bishop, I’ve seen too many “bad guys” even in the church “win” and I get tired of it. Sometimes Christians need to be smart and use the power that God gives them for the sake of good.
Yes Holly. Sometimes we forget to acknowledge the fact that their is always an enemy lurking and ready to exercise his muscles. But we need to also remember that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world I also wrote about this a few weeks ago on my blog called “the roar within’ sometimes mama lion needs to come out, show her teeth and when necessary … pounce!
Absolutely Betsy. I’ll check out your blog. Christians don’t always have to lie down and take a beating. Sometimes we need to fight the enemy. Thor had his hammer. Jesus had the nails. There is power in the blood of Christ.
Reblogged this on 1earthnow and commented:
A timely allegory indeed, the victims and superheroes are truly within all of us! Nice post Holly, I’ll surely pass it on.
Thanks for sharing it!
We saw the movie yesterday. Great analogy, Also liked Captain America stepping in when Loki tried to get the crowd to bow in Germany.
I loved that part, too!
I still have to see that movie but I hear great things about it.
It was pretty awesome!
Hey, I finally saw The Avengers this weekend. That moment you spoke of–it was indeed all that you said it would be!
I once read this pretty awesome interpretation of Jesus’ admonishment to “turn the other cheek”. The interpretation that I grew up with, and probably most Christians, is that to turn the other cheek means not rising up against someone who wrongs you, ignoring their bad behavior.
But the interpretation I read (and I can’t remember who said it exactly, but Julie Davis discusses it in her book, “Happy Catholic”) said the admonishment to “turn the other cheek” is a defiant one, not one of acquiescence. In other words, it’s like saying to the person who “hit” you, “That all you got????” It’s willingness to stand up for your beliefs, in the face of pain and persecution, not simply cower in the corner. Christianity ≠ weakness.
Can’t wait to see The Avengers! I’m taking my boys on Friday 🙂
~Lynn
Lynn, You will love it! So will your boys. Best movie I’ve seen in years and I’m not a fan of movies like that. I was kind of hesitant to even go. Have fun! If you have the option of seeing it in 3D, go for it!
Good for you, Holly! Great post. This may be a different take on your post, but I love watching Steven Segal movies. Not because they’re good movies, and not because Segal is the most law-biding citizen. But in his movies the bad guys always lose, and sometimes get beaten to a pulp in the end. GO Good guys!
I am a secret Steven Segal movie fan for the same reasons! I love it when the good guys win.
Excellent post. Tweeted this one!
Thanks!!
I haven’t seen the movie but I like how you paralleled the movie to our own fight with enemies. At times we are required to take it to our enemy.
Definitely enjoyed this post, and I couldn’t agree with you more. I think about how I once felt defeated, powerless, and hopeless when it seemed like I was being attacked from every direction. This was before I received the revelation and wisdom on the power of prayer and speaking the Word of God over any situation, circumstance, or problem. We have such a mighty arsenal just waiting for us to put it into action. Not to mention we have angelic assistance waiting on the sidelines for us to give them an assignment to go to work on. We can live victorious in every area of our life if we will use the weapon package we’ve been issued and not allow it to collect dust up on a shelf. Again great post, and thanks for checking out and choosing to follow my blog. Many continued blessings to you!
Wendy Brooks
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Hi Wendy, what a powerful message you wrote here. Thanks for visiting my blog. It’s true. The Word of God, spoken over any situation, will set all things right. Great to meet you! Looking forward to more of your blog posts.
Love the premise to your site – the twisting paths etc… good stuff! look forward to more! much love Freya xxx
Thanks Freya!
Holly,
I saw that you checked out my blog so I thought I would check out yours. I loved that movie as well. My favorite line was Captain America when He said something like, ” there is only one God and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” It’s not very often you get any positive, ethical, character claiming the one true God from a Hollywood movie.
On your passion for not taking crap, while that is part of our human nature to want to stand for what is right, see the little guy overcome& see the bad guy get it, lets not forget the best guy in the world, Jesus the Christ, submitted himself to taking lots of crap and he took it for us. So every day we have the same opportunity to lay down our lives, to put aside our personal desires and take some crap, putting others first in our life, loving others as ourselves. That’s not just the nice people but mean people too.
Jesus overturned the tables not because he was insulted but because his Father’s house was being defiled.
Corinthians 12:9-12
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it when God shows His power. I loved it when God sent down fire from heaven to consume the offering of Elijah’s because He showing He is the one true God. But we are called to suffer for His sake and that means taking lots of crap and doing it humbly. That doesn’t make us weak, Jesus wasn’t weak, he didn’t stand up for his rights, he laid down his life for us.
Hi Tina, I understand you completely. I was coming from a perspective of a specific situation where the choice was to stand and deal with a situation or let a church fall because of bad intentioned people. We used prayer and the power of God to handle the situation and the results were beautiful. The church is now doing well and the ministry is incredible. All is good. Sometimes we have to stand up in faith instead of allowing the wrong people to stomp all over us and destroy.
Ah Yes I was coming from a completely different perspective. As long as it’s God and His word and His church we are standing for that is always a good thing. 🙂 It’s all for Him… to God be the glory!
Amen! 🙂
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I grew up not knowing that it was okay to say, “No.” Sad to say, it is something I didn’t learn until the second half-century of my life. In fact, the Lord is currently providing me with many “quizzes” on the topic to check my progress!
As you’ve been reading in our story, the bad guy we’ve been up against is the source of all evil and his minion.
To discover that we can stand in the authority of Christ, and by the power of His shed blood kick butt and take names surprised the daylights out of me. I had to ask myself, “Why, if I really BELIEVE what the Bible says?” That was a corner-turner for me. Life’s been a wild ride!
\o/
Always enjoy reading Holly Michael the Christian Writer. Great post. And, by all the comments, very popular with a lot of people.
Thanks Steve! Glad you came by!
You’re a regular read in the fall, Holly
Thanks!!
Yep!