By the Way: What’s your superpower

By Nancy Cocks on February 11, 2023.

There are lots of superhero movies these days, each with their unique combination of superpowers. Superman, from my generation, has definitely been outclassed!

Some Bible stories portray Jesus as a kind of superhero, with power to calm an angry sea, restore sight to a blind person, or, post-Easter, appear mysteriously in a room with locked doors.

Superheroes can make us feel more like Clark Kent than Superman. And Jesus can lose superhero status if someone demands a miracle that doesn’t materialize!

Last week I heard a children’s author interviewed about her books. She talked about her “superheroes,” child characters with the odds stacked against them.

She portrays them with their own superpowers of intelligence, imagination and empathy. Superpowers which can be encouraged in every child, she believes. She reminded me of the superpower for Valentine’s Day as it approaches.

Love, of course. But the famous description of love in Scripture is not about romance. Love is a superpower for good relationships, yes, with your beloved, but also with those we meet every day.

I Corinthians is often read at weddings. “Love is patient and kind; neither envious nor boastful, nor arrogantÂ or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” When I’ve read that line, some in the congregation usually chuckle.

For it’s part of love’s superpower we prefer to overlook. We really like insisting on our own way. If we don’t get it, we’ll be irritable and resentful, two more things St Paul wants lovers to avoid.

The love God inspires in us creates room for empathy, the superpower to appreciate how someone else is feeling and why. It’s the love that helps romance mature and endure. And it’s the love that makes a community successful without the need for superhero intervention.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Medicine Hat. Here’s to loving every neighbour – and stranger – with patience, kindness and a little more empathy.