Super Turkey

Okay, so there’s a poultry theme going on here.

This evening we were driving to some friends’ house for dinner and there were several wild turkeys on the road. As I slowed down and pointed them out to Brody (who turns 4 in 2 months – holy cats!), one of the turkeys flew away. (on a side note – that was a picture of beauty in motion – aerial artistry – anyone who has seen a turkey fly knows I’m joking here). Brody’s response:

“That must be Super Turkey!”

“The Incredibles” has been the movie of the week at our house. The movie about the family of super-heroes: the dad is super strong, the mom is super stretchy, the girl turns invisible and makes force-fields (a blatant copy of Sue from the Fantastic Four), the boy runs super fast, and the baby can do just about anything. During the movie the family unites and saves the world with their amazing powers.

Brody now has one speed – super fast. He can run as fast as Dash, the fast boy in the movie. As we walk around town, Brody tells everyone he meets about his super powers. No shame.

As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. Not some warm-and-fuzzy feel good Halmark card phrase lame forwarded email loving ghost-like thing, but the very spirit of Jesus (yeah, Jesus)! The guy that was victorious over… now what was it… oh yeah… DEATH! Jesus – the one that created… hold on… wait for it…. EVERYTHING! He is inside of everyone who has trusted their life to him.

He is constantly working in us, molding us into who he has designed us to be. His creativity is waiting to be unleashed in us. His intimacy is longing to fill every emotional need we could ever have. That’s super power!

If that super power is available to us, if it died for us, if it was victorious over death for us… why do we live our lives in hiding? Why don’t we let people see who we really are? Why do we hide behind our fences and in front of our TVs instead of living out of who God has said we are?

The funny angle in “The Incredibles” is that for most of the movie the family must live in hiding because of the lawsuits that happen when super-heroes accidentally injure innocent bystanders. Are we afraid of harming others? I don’t think so.

My guess is that we’re afraid that we’ll get hurt and we’re afraid that life may look a little different for us.

Let’s move past that fear together.

Half a Snake Eyes

I’m not talking about dice.
I was out in our garage putting away some Christmas decorations. Growing up as a kid, we would often open Valentines cards by the Christmas tree. But I digress…

As I was putting away a few holiday boxes, I looked up and saw a box labeled “Brad’s GI Joes.” Being a child of the 80s, I couldn’t pass that up. I decided to take a few minutes and relive some childhood memories. As I opened the box, I was envisioning my favorite GI Joe character, Snake Eyes, and reliving all of the great adventures I took him on. He was my mostest favoritest character: a ninja, a good guy, dressed in black, and he never spoke. I actually had 3 Snake Eyes action figures. Each one was better than the last. More molded weapons and badness with each new model.

I looked down into the box and grabbed the first Snake Eyes that I saw (number 2 out of the 3) and my heart stopped as I picked him up. His torso separated from his hips! NOOOO! I found Snake Eyes #3 in the box and he suffered the same fate as I picked him up. Only Snake Eyes #1 (the oldest one) survived gravity’s pull as I lifted him out of the box.

As it turns out, the torso and hips/legs piece on a GI Joe are held together by a rubber band-like thingy. I guess the combination of sub-freezing temperatures, hours of play time, and being 20-plus years old finally took their toll on the made-in-China rubber band. As I looked around the box, a handful of other action figures suffered the same dismal fate.

There are several deep spiritual ties to this whole event. Letting go of the past… living in a broken world… why does God allow bad things to happen… I can’t process this any more. This still hurts too much right now.

There’s still hope for Snake Eyes. When I was a kid, I had several friends that like to play Doctor Moreau and mix-and-match their GI Joes by taking them apart and reassembling them. All I need to do is find some really small rubber bands…