Enduring Hero
Joe Principato / Video Director
Back in high school, a group of friends and I came up with “hero” nicknames that best suited our personalities that we’d use for emails, myspace pages, gamertags, and the like. The names were all angsty and filled with teen drama like “Forgotten Hero”, “Distrusted Hero” or “Unwanted Hero.” The name I chose for myself was “Enduring Hero.” I chose the moniker of “enduring” because for a very long time that’s what I felt like I was doing. I always had this feeling of waiting for something or someone, all the while feeling like my world was going to cave in on top of me. I continued to feel this way pretty much all throughout my adult life as well. Always waiting, always hoping, always enduring what life continued to throw at me.
The problem with this mentality is that despite my nickname, I’m not a superhero. I’m only a man ("in a silly red sheet" ha ha) with flaws and hurts like everyone else, and the burden of “enduring” was never mine to bear at all. I had been carrying the hopes and hurts, dreams and demons, and the aspirations and exacerbations of my life as if it were something that was my responsibility. It wasn’t.
Jesus was and continues to be the true Enduring Hero. He endures all of that for our sakes, so that we may know Him and be saved. He continues to come to our aid and our defense when the Accuser tries to shift the weight on us. He’s there for us, He helps us, and guides us. He’s our ever-present help in our time of need, and boy do we need a lot of help sometimes. Better than Superman, Jesus is GOD. Lord of heaven and earth, and our hopes, dreams, hurts, troubles, and trials, are nothing compared to His glory and majesty. And yet, despite all of that, He loves us … more than we’ll ever know, He loves us.
So if you, too, are burdened by the weight that you carry day after day; if you, too, feel like you have to be a “hero” to your children, your spouse, your friends, or coworkers, take comfort that you are not a hero, but the true Hero, Jesus, is there for you, and you need only call on Him.
I still continue to use the name “Enduring Hero” today as my name of choice for most things internet-related, but every time I do, I am reminded of the true Enduring Hero who continues to look out for me day after day.
Till next time, church.
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| Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash |
Back in high school, a group of friends and I came up with “hero” nicknames that best suited our personalities that we’d use for emails, myspace pages, gamertags, and the like. The names were all angsty and filled with teen drama like “Forgotten Hero”, “Distrusted Hero” or “Unwanted Hero.” The name I chose for myself was “Enduring Hero.” I chose the moniker of “enduring” because for a very long time that’s what I felt like I was doing. I always had this feeling of waiting for something or someone, all the while feeling like my world was going to cave in on top of me. I continued to feel this way pretty much all throughout my adult life as well. Always waiting, always hoping, always enduring what life continued to throw at me.
The problem with this mentality is that despite my nickname, I’m not a superhero. I’m only a man ("in a silly red sheet" ha ha) with flaws and hurts like everyone else, and the burden of “enduring” was never mine to bear at all. I had been carrying the hopes and hurts, dreams and demons, and the aspirations and exacerbations of my life as if it were something that was my responsibility. It wasn’t.
Jesus was and continues to be the true Enduring Hero. He endures all of that for our sakes, so that we may know Him and be saved. He continues to come to our aid and our defense when the Accuser tries to shift the weight on us. He’s there for us, He helps us, and guides us. He’s our ever-present help in our time of need, and boy do we need a lot of help sometimes. Better than Superman, Jesus is GOD. Lord of heaven and earth, and our hopes, dreams, hurts, troubles, and trials, are nothing compared to His glory and majesty. And yet, despite all of that, He loves us … more than we’ll ever know, He loves us.
So if you, too, are burdened by the weight that you carry day after day; if you, too, feel like you have to be a “hero” to your children, your spouse, your friends, or coworkers, take comfort that you are not a hero, but the true Hero, Jesus, is there for you, and you need only call on Him.
I still continue to use the name “Enduring Hero” today as my name of choice for most things internet-related, but every time I do, I am reminded of the true Enduring Hero who continues to look out for me day after day.
Till next time, church.