All of us have something special within ourselves that impacts others and can alter the atmosphere around us: Everyday superpowers. Not exactly the blockbuster movie variety, but superpowers nonetheless. Attitudes and influence that shape opinion, encourage or inspire, and change the course of someone’s day, even if only our own. This is not nothing. In fact, it’s quite a lot.
The person who can always soothe a crying baby in your church nursery. The friend who has a knack for fixing virtually anything. The stranger who sing-songs across the Kroger parking lot, “I LOVE your dress!” turning your frown upside down, then, “Girl, your SHOES (hand gesturing in a dramatic swirl from your head toward your feet), you got it GOING ON today!” Okay…that was personal. Someone I had never met until last Tuesday, and won’t likely ever see again, had the ability to transform my lousy day into something lovely. If that isn’t power, I don’t know what is.
Everyday superpowers are not something we conjure or force, but they can be cultivated.
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us, “… we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” We are created in His image with a planned purpose, and regardless of our age or stage, there are always good things for us to do.
What you offer matters because no one else has exactly what you have to give. God has fashioned each one of us uniquely in a way to impact the people and circumstances around us, whether in word or deed, in large ways or small. Do you understand what that means? Darling, the world hasn’t been the same since you were born.
Satan knows this, too. I suspect he understands God’s plans for us better than we do. It would explain the discouragement, defeat, and despair that continually creep into our hearts and minds. Satan hates us – he hates God! – and he effectively undermines us (and God) any way he can.
Usually, I think of our everyday superpowers as an outward influence, but recently I’ve considered what a superpower can mean personally. For most of my life, one of my superpowers has been “irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything” — textbook Pollyanna. In the absence of light, I’d pinpoint the bright side. When all seemed lost, I could find the thinnest silver lining. But, as the past two years have brought some of the darkest days of my life, there have been moments when I’ve been crushed by the pain of circumstance. I could barely hold it together.
Please keep reading over at (in)courage…
especially if you’re in a season where you’re sad or angry all the time or
“in a pit where bright sides and silver linings couldn’t penetrate the darkness.”
You can also listen if you aren’t able to read right now.
