“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid of terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” –Deuteronomy 31:6
When I was younger, I loved to watch superhero cartoons. Everything from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four, I watched religiously. I loved watching all the heroes with their different super powers defeat the bad guys, saving the day. Everyone loved them because they were special and could do special things. I loved them for that, too.
As I grew older, I still loved my Marvel heroes, only more secretly. When you’re a teenage girl, you’re not really supposed to love comics and superheroes. I still loved how their unique personalities and special powers could affect the story lines. These characters were special to me because I was not special, or at least I didn’t feel that way in high school (But who does?). I wished that I could do special things like they could.
Today, I am a newly college graduate. I am having some difficulty with deciding what to do with my life. I’m not sure what to do, but I can feel my quarter life crisis beginning! Needless to say, I feel afraid of the future. I have doubted whether I can do anything special at all with my life. My worst fear has always been a life unlived. I don’t have any special super powers and I will probably never do anything as super as saving the world from Ultron….
Now that I’m older, I have come to love and appreciate some of the other Marvel characters besides the super heroes (i.e. Loki <3). One character in particular I’ve come to like is Agent Carter. I didn’t really know about her as a little kid, but she has become one of my absolute favorites. But, hold on….Agent Carter? She doesn’t even have any special powers! It probably wasn’t until I discovered Agent Carter did I realize that you don’t have to be super to be a hero.
Agent Carter was involved in espionage and special military work during a time when women could not really succeed in either. She could have done what society expected women to do, but instead she chose a different route. The world said, “no, you can’t”, but Agent Carter answered back, “Watch me”.
Is any of this sounding familiar? Moses went through a trial similar to Agent Carter’s. Moses was minding his own business, living as a shepherd in the desert, when God called him to do something big: go to Pharaoh and lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. To this, Moses replied: “Who am I am I to appear before Pharaoh? “Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” – Exodus 3:11. And God told him: “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you.” –Exodus 3:12.
But again, Moses made excuses: “O Lord, I’m nor very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled. Lord, please, send anyone else!” –Exodus 4:10-13
Moses said, “No, I can’t”, but God answered back, “Watch me”.
Sometimes, we have an idea of what we would like to do with our lives. We think about where we want to go, when we want to do things…but then we stop. We panic over what might go wrong. What if we end up not liking the path we choose? What if people are unfriendly with us? What if we tell people what we want to do and they tell us, “No, you’ll never make it. You won’t do well in that area.” Do we agree with them, saying, “You’re right, I’ll do something with my life that you want me to do”? Or do we tell them, “Watch what I can do”?
Like Moses or Agent Carter, God can call on us to do things that seem too difficult. Whether it’s standing up to Pharaoh or breaking the molds of society, we say, “no, I can’t”. Moses wanted to hide behind his inadequacies. He was too afraid to fulfill the plans that God had for him. We come up with reasons why we can never fulfill the dreams we have for ourselves. We don’t have super powers to make us great. God doesn’t see it that way.
“Compromise where you can. Where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, no, you move”. – Agent Carter