Are you a DC or Marvel Christian?

Whose side are you on?

I'm a big fan of comic books.  I grew up reading them, and to me, DC Comics was always my favorite.  For the unintiated, DC Comics is the home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman - basically all the characters we think of when you think of iconic superheroes.  I occasionally picked up a few Marvel books, playing around for short times with X-Men and Spiderman, among a few others, but the characters and the stories never resonated with me much, so I stuck with DC by and large.

It wasn't until adulthood, when a post by Jeremy Pierce got me thinking about it, that I realized what the fundamental difference in the two universes is, and perhaps what that says about people in terms of how they view themselves in the Kingdom of God. (It's a stretch, I know . . . humor me)  There are tons of other differences, and tons of exceptions, but the basic fundamental difference is this: in DC Comics Superman is Superman, Clark Kent is a facade.  Superman is the core of who he really is.  In Marvel comics, the masks and tights is the facade.  Spiderman is really Peter Parker, at his core.  He's just a kid trying to make it, and help some people out along the way.  A good kid, but Spiderman is a mask for him to do good works.  Ponder on that a minute, and let's continue.

A Look in the Mirror

I always know when God is trying to show me something about myself, that I'm uninterested in seeing.  My showers get much longer in the mornings, so I have to rush through Bible/Prayer time.  My prayers get very "surface" and short.  I decide I should read a book about how to live for God better, instead of seeking God for what he wants me to do each day.

This pretty much sums up the last few days.  Apparently I also get irritable, since I've been accused of being in a bad mood not a few times since the weekend.

I'm generally what I would call a "closed" person.  I like people... so long as they leave me alone.  I like them as long as they don't interfere with my plans or encroach on my life in any kind of bothersome way.  I can see personally that this is obviously not the way to live, if I also intend to live my life in a way that shares the love of Jesus with people.  I certainly don't recall Jesus ever saying, "What?  You want me to pray for what?  It's 8:00 at night, I worked all day, and I'm tired.  Don't bother me."  Because that's the way I view people: bothersome.  When all of this was working it's way into my attention, my wife frustratedly exclaimed, "That's why you don't have any friends.  People are scared to talk to you."  My quick and rather hateful response back was, "I have NEVER complained about not having friends."  Upon saying it, I realized that I take a little perverse pleasure in every time someone says that people find me intimidating or unapproachable.  I found myself smiling when my wife told me that people are scared to talk to me, because they think they're bothering me.  For some reason, I've developed an attitude that people are to be kept as far away as possible, at all costs.  And the more foreboding and intimidating I can be, the less I actually have to talk to any of them.

I recall, as a child, a particular incident where someone I considered a friend said, "Nobody likes you because you're so smart."  It was elementary school in the 80's.  I was one of the few kids that had a computer, and my dad had found some silly program that let you make crossword puzzles.  I thought it would be neat to make one of some of our vocabulary words, and had him make it, so I could take it to class.  Teachers are typically very thankful for anything that helps pass the time in a class, so she copied it and passed it out.  A lot of kids thought it was neat that I (my dad) made it, and some didn't.  Looking back, I can see that perhaps my little friend was jealous of the attention, or perhaps hated schoolwork, and didn't want to do the crossword puzzle.  Maybe she just enjoyed being the "good" student in the class, and I had taken her out of the spotlight.  Either way, those words stuck with me.  Nobody likes me because I'm smart.

Now, I know many of your are reading this and thinking, "Really?  Get over it.  It was elementary school.  You're an adult now!"  But in order to change the person we have become, I think we have to take a long look at what made us this way.

I'm not bragging about my intelligence here . . . I consider myself to be of relatively average intelligence, however sometimes people make me reconsider that idea. ;)  I did make straight A's in school, and generally enjoyed (and still do enjoy) learning something new.  Anything new.  I rock at Trivial Pursuit.  But the perception was there, at least for that little girl, at that moment.  And at that moment, I embraced a very dangerous way of thinking, to ease the pain of the idea of nobody liking me.  I embraced superiority.  People didn't like me?  That's fine . . . it's because I'm smarter than them.  She said as much.  It may be lonely at the top, but it just means I can look down on everyone else.  That began the wall building project in my heart.  And it didn't stop for many years.

Now, I didn't go around acting and claiming to be smarter than anyone.  It was the window through which I viewed the world.  Who needs friends and other people?  Not me.  Why would I?  I don't need their help.  I was, and still am, for a large part, an island unto myself.  The foundation was laid for the walls around my heart.  And we know that our enemy took every opportunity to continue building them.

I never made friends easily.  I was pretty shy.  But probably as a result of this self-righteous and arrogant view of the world, many of them parted ways with me.  Each time adding another brick to my wall.  I remember when I was 15 having a friend that was one of the few I had personally gone out the way to make throughout my life.  On a school trip, his entire attitude changed towards me.  To this day, I'm not sure if or what I could've done to illicit that type of response from him, but we never spoke again.  We sat next to each other in a few classes.  The next day at school I turned around to try and see what was wrong, and he told me to never speak to him again.  Ever.  Ouch.

I did finally find some good friends, that I'm still friends with today.  So this isn't a total pity party.  More of a "bringing you up to speed" explanation.  By the time I was an adult, however, I typically preferred being alone, and enjoying whatever things I found to pass my time.  My walls were complete.  Few came in.  The gates were way too guarded for that.  Too afraid to be hurt, too proud to open the gates, and walled in from all other sides.

Which brings us to today.  I'm a know-it-all.  But I'm seldom hurt, because few people get that close.  I can even admit to holding my wife at arm's length occasionally.  The situation, at this point, requires more than my decision to go out and be nice to people.  I need God's help to tear down the walls that I've built up.  It's ugly to see myself as an arrogant, self-righteous smart-alec who believes he is never wrong.  I'm ashamed of my attitudes towards other people.  But I'm thankful that God showed me this in prayer, and is giving me the opportunity to change rather than causing circumstances to come about in my life that would force me into it.

I've let the cares of the world choke out the love of God in my heart.  It's still alive in there, just small.  But luckily, if I let it, there's nothing that can keep something that powerful walled up.  Now . . . I think I have a few relationships to mend, and perceptions to change.

A Relevant Gospel for a Web 2.0 World

I've been working on some new features for the main site, and haven't really had much time to sit down and collect my thoughts recently.  If you've followed me for long, you know how fervently I strive to be a "witness," whatever that may entail.  And as a self-professed geek, I feel that these internets can and should be used as a tool for evangelization.  The question is: "How?"

I teach the Teens' Sunday School class at my church, and have a mission for it that I believe is somewhat unique to a class of that age-range: to teach them how to read and understand the Bible for themselves.  Somewhere along in my life, I got a pretty decent understanding of the Bible, how to study it, etc. . . and that was before my brief and disappointing stay at a Bible college.  So, we go through a book of the Bible, taking our time, reading, and learning how to take the story, and apply it to our lives, how to read it in context so we don't get wacky with things, how to study a topic throughout the Bible as a applicable one arises through our reading.  Most of the kids didn't even realize there was a concordance in the back of their Bible before it started, and they've really learned how to dig in and find answers to tough questions in the Bible.

We recently began studying the book of Acts, and while we've only talked about 2 verses in it in depth, so far, it's really started changing the way I view my witnessing activities.  In Acts 1:8, we see a mandate that represents an almost insurmountable slew of cultural barriers.  Not only should the disciples witness to their own kind, but to the Samaritans (gasp!) and eventually even the Gentiles!  We're studying the book in this light: as a manual for reaching across barriers and winning the lost.

In my class, I used  the example of me and a redneck.  I am, at my heart, a city boy.  I don't hunt.  I don't fish.  I don't really even like to be outside, except for perfect, cool days, with no bugs.  I like the hustle and bustle of a city.  I don't particularly care for country-style fried foods (they do fry everything...ever had a fried twinkie?  I have).  I don't like football.  Basically, it's nearly impossible for me to connect with the traditional southerners of small-town Arkansas.  However, I have the mandate to do just that, to spread the Gospel.  And to be effective, I feel, I must do it in a way that is relevant to the person receiving it.  I think, here, is where we lose a lot of effectiveness has Christians today.

Paul famously (infamously?) said when he was in Rome, he did as the Romans.  That he becomes all things to all people, in order the spread the Gospel.  I think I can surmise, that this means if I'm going to witness to rednecks (and I don't use that term derogatorily) then I have to "become one" . . . so to speak.  I have to be willing to show them I care about them, and that usually means showing that I care about the things they care about.  That I "get" them.  I mean . . . seriously . . . what country fellow, who hunts and fishes, and loves the outdoors and all the stuff in it, is going to take a look at a pale, pasty, computer nerd, who is never parted with his iPhone and think, "This guy really gets where I'm coming from . . . and I should listen to what he has to say."  I'm not saying be fake . . . I'd be ridiculed pretty fast if I went around with boots talking about shooting animals in the woods.  But I can engage Mr. Redneck in areas where we can connect.  I can show I care by saying, "Hey . . . you been fishing lately?  Catch anything?"  I think the working premise here, is that I care enough about him to engage him in his culture, if I can't engage him as part of his culture.  Maybe even go fishing with him.  Believe me, he'd only invite me once. ;)

We've become so accustomed to "church-centered" evangelization, that we miss out on the true secret of church growth in Acts: personal evangelism.  They were at each other's houses, breaking bread, and believers were added to the church daily.  That means that on a daily basis, regular believing Jews would have to go out of their way to befriend Gentiles and Samaritans.  To love them.  Care for them.  Looking at churches today, we've evolved into our own brand of Judaism.  We don't reach to the world, we look down on them.  We don't go to the lost, and pull them up to where we are, we look down on them and expect them to come to us.  I believe that the relevance of evangelistic crusades for this generation just isn't there.  Basically, we've gotten a little too self-righteous.

So, for today's generation, the internet is obviously a relevant way to engage them, but I haven't seen it used effectively (yet) to reach anyone.  I have an idea, but I'm interested in hearing your opinions.  Leave some ideas in the comments, or share a new way to engage anyone in a way that is relevant to who they are.  One way I think the internet can excel, for us, is to provide a place for us to encourage each other to go out and win the lost.  To share ideas, stories, and testimonies of how to be an effective witness.  That's why I started TheLimitless.com, and that's especially why I opened it up to a community of bloggers to host their own blogging site on, or share their current blog with a new audience.  Hopefully, we can all help each other become real and true witnesses.