As I sat down on a plane flight, I quickly browsed through new movies that were on the plane. I quickly came across one documentary titled, Super/Man a Christopher Reeves Story, that came out very recently in 2024. It is about Christopher Reeves, an actor who played the original superman movie. The documentary highlighted a couple things in his life, one of which is how he got a spinal cord injury at the age of 42, after falling off a horse in an equestrian competition. He then dedicated his life to researching possible cures for spinal cord injuries. Although he was not a Christian, I believe that there are a lot of things to unpack here, and lessons we can take away from this documentary.
One similar story to his, occurred to Joni Eareckson Tada who became paralyzed neck down caused by a diving injury. Shortly after being paralyzed at the age of 17, she was left with two choices. The first is to curse God for the rest of her life or the second is to use her life to praise the Lord and glorify him. After listening to a Francis Chan’s sermon, Francis Chan describes her as someone who is incredibly joyful, someone who would sing songs of joy and praise the Lord, and send notes of encouragement when she was battling with cancer.
Some Takeaways I’ve learned from Documentary and Joni Eareckson Tada
You do not know what is going to happen in your life. Absolutely n0 idea of what is going to happen. You might get into an accident that leaves you dead or you might get into an accident that leaves you in a worse state than you are in. One thing that I learned is to practice gratitude every single day to the Lord because there are so many things to be grateful for. You do not know the time or place that you will be taken to see the Lord, so make every minute count in your life. Not to live it in a sense of fear, or worry at any point that you might die, but live it in a state of yeah, life is limited, it is short, and I don’t want to waste my life on things that don’t matter on this earth.
Something else that I have realized is that when life hits you hard, with unexpected events or with things that are not going your way, being close to the Lord is key. To truly to hold fast to him and make him your comfort. I am going to be hit with a lot of things in life that are going to be hard. You are too. Death is inevitable, broken relationships sometimes happen, accidents happen, etc. The list goes on and on. We are not asked to live out of a spirit of fear, but to live out of gratitude and not to be anxious.
We are asked to in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. It is also said in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.
What does that look like? For me, it is holding everything loosely with open hands and surrendering my will to God. When I walk day by day with the Lord, whatever life throws at me, I am able to say Lord, this has happened, I am frustrated but I surrender this into your hands. You are Lord over my life, and you are sovereign. When God says wait, I say Lord, I wait patiently on you Father. You are gracious and kind, good and loving, and that everything happens for a reason. You work everything for the good of those who love him. I might want something, but sometimes God delays it to strengthen my faith and relationship with him.
I am not perfect in that. Sometimes I can be frustrated, sometimes I turn to other things to numb the pain in life but when I sit through and engage with the Lord, that is when I mature. That is when I grow. In times of pain, I only see how there is two options. One is to numb the pain with whatever it may be that leaves you in a worse state than before (alcahol, porn, drugs, watching movies, binging tv shows, social media) to distract yourself from the pain. Two is to go to the Lord in prayer and say Lord, I am in pain, you hear my cry and I choose to trust you. Every time you go the Lord in pain and struggle, in happiness as well, you grow. You grow as a person and mature more and more in the Lord.
Life is a series of choices, and there are no do overs in life. I have spent close to half of my life struggling with pornography. Right now, I am in an amazing season in my life. Will I get a chance to go back and fix my struggles and say, wow, porn has ruined my relationship with my family and how I view sex? No, I can’t. I have to live with the fact that I could say part of my life has been wasted in front of a screen, sinning against the Lord. Is there grace in that? Yes, but that still means I can’t go back and change what I have done but I can change what I will do in the future. Whenever I would go to my friend after watching porn or masturbating, he would tell me to do the next right thing. That means to go lament, repent from my sins, and turn away 180 degrees from the sin.
C.S. Lewis once said, “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”.
We have a hope that is greater than anything in this world. We have a set future of a hope in Christ, where we will live with him forever in eternity. One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis is taken from the last battle after the final battle and most of the main characters join Aslan in a new Narnia.
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
― The Last Battle
We have a hope in Christ. As society begins to shift closer and closer into a time to chaos, I am forced to confront our reality of life. How do I engage in this new world where the impact of sin is minimized? How will I live the one life that I have on this earth? How can I use my gifts and talents to bring more people to Christ?
Prompts to Engage in
How are you living your life?
Are you fearful, worried or anxious about anything that is irrational, if so what and how do you bring that before the Lord?
What habits and things will you put in place to live a life that you want to live before Christ, in this ever worsening state of society where what is right is often wrong and what is wrong is often right?