When Heroes Fall

When I was a kid I liked superhero comics.  In fact I was still buying and reading them when I was in the army (I was 19 after all) but then I didn’t pick one up for several years. And by chance, I happened to see a comic book one day titled “The Death of Superman”.  I was taken aback.  Surely this was a mistake or a gimmick.  Something they were pulling to draw you in but that Superman, the Man of Steel, could not die.

When I had snatched it up and read it (and the previous three or four), however, I found that it was indeed true.  The ultimate superhero had been killed off and they had quit production of the comic.  How on earth could this have happened?  Nothing could do this to this Hero.  I was upset about it even though it was just a comic book.  Why?  Because we look up to heroes.  We want them to be better than us.  We want them to win.  This is why they made comics in the first place, because in real life, our heroes fall.

Recently something happened which shocked me harshly.  I found out that one of my heroes had fallen.  I couldn’t believe it.  I thought it must be a mistake or someone’s miss-contrived joke, but it wasn’t.  It was true.  The problem was not that someone had fallen, or even that this someone was a person I looked up to.  It was more that they were someone I really looked up to in the faith.

They were someone to whom I had gone, many times, for council and for answers about God and our walk with Him and they always seemed to have the right answers.  Everything they told me about Christianity, and even ministry worked when applied properly.

Furthermore the area in which they had fallen was the area of their particular genius and expertise.  This made it even more unfathomable that it was happening.  How could this giant who knew more than I could hope to know and whom I had seen time and again come up with the solution to problems have been utterly defeated by this, their very area of prowess?  The answer still eludes me.

Many feelings and thoughts haunted me about this for weeks.  I began to have doubts.  The very fact that this happened cast dark shadows on virtually everything they had taught me.  I questioned much and wondered very painfully that if they were not adequate to conquer this task- was anyone?  Is it possible that no one could be immune from this fall and in the end all of us, no matter how secure we felt in our faith and our relationships that it was all for naught?

I also had very serious doubts about the things I had learned from them.  “Well, if that didn’t make a difference in their life what good is it?”  Quite frankly I was heartbroken, frustrated, discouraged and yes, even angry.

I think this happens to many, many people.  We see someone we look at as a superhero in the faith.  We see them this way because, as another comic book superhero once said, they “Never let ‘em see you limp.”  We think they are invincible and really, they are just people.  Maybe people who are doing a better job of living for Christ than many around us and so we tend to be blind to their weaknesses until those weaknesses are gigantic and cannot be overlooked. but still, they are just people.  And people, my friends, fall.

In reality nothing that my hero taught me about God was any different than it had been before.  Nothing they ever taught me about living life as a Christian man, husband, father, minister or friend was any different.  If it was right then (and the vast majority of it was) it was still right now.  I can have just as much faith in those areas in my own life as I did when I looked to them as a bright shining example… as long as I do what I know God would have me do.  Their failing, or my own, or your own, does not change who God is and what His word tells me and promises to me.

Superman, in the comics had indeed fallen and they buried him and he was dead…for a while.  The strange thing is that when they brought him back to life (you knew they would) it was just that he needed to be filled with the energy of the Sun again.

When our human heroes in the faith fall (and they will) we can take solace in the fact that all that is really needed is for them to be filled by the power of the Son again.  We all can and will be forgiven by God and we should hope and pray that we will have enough grace to forgive those we see fall, and that those that see us fall will also give us grace.  Oh, and by the way, we need to stop seeing a big red “S” on people’s chests- there is far too much Kryptonite in this world.