Tag Archives: Supergirl

Devotional, Previous Post

REVISITED: Name Your Demons

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Read Matthew 8:28-34

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.“ (John 8:36)

supergirl

The last thing that I probably needed in my life was to get hooked on yet another television series. As many of you probably know from previous devotions, I already am hooked on The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, The Voice, House of Cards, and certain news programs in order to keep up with the world around me. So the last thing I needed to do was to add another show on top of it. Yet, when I saw that they were coming out with a television show on Supergirl, I just could not resist. I have a thing for Supergirl, call this my confessional, and I was super stoked to see her being given a proper treatment. Well, I wasn’t disapponinted.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the show smart, fun and witty, it is also rather deep for a “superhero” film. The more and more I watch of this show, the more and more I start to see that there is something larger going than just the stories themselves. Each week I find that I am not only rooting for Kara Zor-El (aka Supergirl), but I find myself relating with her, and learning from her. I find myself laughing, crying and emoting over stuff I am going through in life. This show has been so well written and thoughtout that it literally transcends mere entertainment and is, at least for me, feeding my soul. All of this in a superhero flick.

This past week’s episode is a prime example. In it she battles a robot that seems hell bent on destroying her. What’s worse, this robot seems to be out of control and virtually unstoppable. She just cannot seem to get an edge on it and it seems to be overpowering her, despite how strong she is. The robot is super fast, he can turn himself into a tornado, and has a strenght that matches, if not bests, the strength of Supergirl. What’s more, his super solid exterior makes him a difficult target. Not even Kara’s superpunches cannot penetrate him and she finds herself at a loss.

As it turns out, there is another thing Kara is battling that is an even stronger force than this robot. That force is the anger that she has internalized of the years. At first she thought that she was just mad because the guy she likes is taken and that she’ll never find a special someone for herself. Yet, as the episode goes on, we find out that there is “anger beneath the anger.” She discovers that she was angry at her parents sending her to earth and choosing to stay and die on planet Krypton. She was angry that she never got to say goodbye to her adopted father, never having closure following his disappearance and death. She was angry because as normal as she tried to be, she was not normal. She was angry because she, as a girl, felt invalidated and felt that she had to work twice as hard to prove herself. Her rage was such that she was losing control of it, which was having some pretty awful consequences.

Looking back on the episode, the robot (though it was a real enemy that posed a real threat) was a living embodiment of the hard, brutal, unquenched rage that was burning inside her. It wasn’t until she came to terms with the things that she was struggling with that she was able to focus her rage in appropriate ways. It’s not that the rage within her disappeared, but that she was able to work through it rather than be controlled by it. The challenge for us today is to be like Kara Zor-El. We need to penetrate deep into ourselves and reflect on the hurts and the wounds we find deep inside. Are you angry, are you hurt, are you envious, are you bitter and/or unforgiving? Whatever the case, name your demons, call them out for what they are, and then be free of them. Allow God to turn your struggles in to triumph.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“If you don’t deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and it’s gonna hurt.” – Nikki Sixx

PRAYER
Lord, help me to name my demons so that, through your power and authority, I may cast them far away from me. Amen.

Devotional

What Do You Fear?

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Read Luke 12:1-7

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭CEB‬‬)‬‬‬‬

 My youngest daughter and I have gotten into the show, Supergirl, which airs on Monday nights on CBS. In one of the episodes, Cara Zor-El (aka Supergirl) ends up joining forces with Maxwell Lord who, up until this point, has been one of her enemies. Family members from Cara’s home planet of Krypton, have decided that they are going to take over the earth to save it from human destruction. Their method for doing so is by using some device called the “Myriad” which allows them to have control of all human minds that are within the range of the device.

Using satalites, the myriad literally enslaves the minds of everyone within National City and Supergirl must find away to stop her fellow Kryptonians from doing that to the people of her city. This is where Maxwell Lord comes in. Maxwell is a rich entrepenuer, scientist, and inventor who has invested his life in trying to prevent “aliens” from taking over the world. He fears no aliens can be trusted and that they are all out own the planet. This is, ultimately, what has set him against Supergirl, who herself is an alien. But, you know how the phrase goes, “The enemy of your enemy is your is your friend”. Thus, Maxwell Lord reaches out to Cara in order to ally himself with her and offer his services to her in order to stop the Kryponians from mind-controlling everyone.

While this all sounds good on the surface, Maxwell’s plan is pretty dark and twisted, He plans on making a bomb that contains a significant amount of Kryptonite in it. The idea is that when the bomb explodes, the Kryptonite will be vaporized and in the air, effectively killing off the evil Kryptonians that are turning humans into mindless drones. The only drawback is that, in order to do that, at least 8% of the human population will be killed by the percussion of the explosion. Maxwell’s logic is as follows, it is better that 300,000 or so people die than for all of National City and the world be turned into slaves of the aliens.

Cara Zor-El is left with a crazy choice. She does not think that killing 300,000 people should be an option on the table, and yet Maxwell’s plan seems to be the only one that has any chance in stopping the Kryptonians. The question becomes does she try to take the high road and do what is morally right, possibly risking losing to the Kryptonians? Or, does she act quickly out of fear of what might happen if she doesn’t?

While the show is obviously fiction, it sets up what we face every day in our lives: FEAR and the choices such FEAR presents us. The question is, what do you fear and how does it affect the decisions you make in your life? Do you allow your fears to consume you, do you allow them to cause you to justify what you would otherwise deem morally reprehenisble? In today’s world, where fear runs rampant and rules us like a tyrannical dictator, we find ourselves faced with people pushing some really crazy and scary idealogies. What’s more, many people are willing to toss their good sensibilities and morals aside, for fear of what will happen if they don’t “DO SOMETHING” in order to prevent what they fear from happening.

Christ does not call us to DO SOMETHING, Christ calls us to DO THE RIGHT THING. Christ is calling us to know what we fear, to name those fears, and to put them into check with our faith. If we have faith in God, if we truly have faith, we will do what is right over and above what seems expedient in preventing our fears from coming true. When we let go and we trust in God, then we can conquer our fears and rise above the things our fears dicate we should do. I pray that we all find the truth in this and place our trust in God.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

PRAYER

Lord, help me to name my fears and conquer them with your love. Amen.

Devotional

Name Your Demons

Leave a comment

Read Matthew 8:28-34

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.“ (John 8:36)

supergirlThe last thing that I probably needed in my life was to get hooked on yet another television series. As many of you probably know from previous devotions, I already am hooked on The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, The Voice, House of Cards, and certain news programs in order to keep up with the world around me. So the last thing I needed to do was to add another show on top of it. Yet, when I saw that they were coming out with a television show on Supergirl, I just could not resist. I have a thing for Supergirl, call this my confessional, and I was super stoked to see her being given a proper treatment. Well, I wasn’t disapponinted.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the show smart, fun and witty, it is also rather deep for a “superhero” film. The more and more I watch of this show, the more and more I start to see that there is something larger going than just the stories themselves. Each week I find that I am not only rooting for Kara Zor-El (aka Supergirl), but I find myself relating with her, and learning from her. I find myself laughing, crying and emoting over stuff I am going through in life. This show has been so well written and thoughtout that it literally transcends mere entertainment and is, at least for me, feeding my soul. All of this in a superhero flick.

This past week’s episode is a prime example. In it she battles a robot that seems hell bent on destroying her. What’s worse, this robot seems to be out of control and virtually unstoppable. She just cannot seem to get an edge on it and it seems to be overpowering her, despite how strong she is. The robot is super fast, he can turn himself into a tornado, and has a strenght that matches, if not bests, the strength of Supergirl. What’s more, his super solid exterior makes him a difficult target. Not even Kara’s superpunches cannot penetrate him and she finds herself at a loss.

As it turns out, there is another thing Kara is battling that is an even stronger force than this robot. That force is the anger that she has internalized of the years. At first she thought that she was just mad because the guy she likes is taken and that she’ll never find a special someone for herself. Yet, as the episode goes on, we find out that there is “anger beneath the anger.” She discovers that she was angry at her parents sending her to earth and choosing to stay and die on planet Krypton. She was angry that she never got to say goodbye to her adopted father, never having closure following his disappearance and death. She was angry because as normal as she tried to be, she was not normal. She was angry because she, as a girl, felt invalidated and felt that she had to work twice as hard to prove herself. Her rage was such that she was losing control of it, which was having some pretty awful consequences.

Looking back on the episode, the robot (though it was a real enemy that posed a real threat) was a living embodiment of the hard, brutal, unquenched rage that was burning inside her. It wasn’t until she came to terms with the things that she was struggling with that she was able to focus her rage in appropriate ways. It’s not that the rage within her disappeared, but that she was able to work through it rather than be controlled by it. The challenge for us today is to be like Kara Zor-El. We need to penetrate deep into ourselves and reflect on the hurts and the wounds we find deep inside. Are you angry, are you hurt, are you envious, are you bitter and/or unforgiving? Whatever the case, name your demons, call them out for what they are, and then be free of them. Allow God to turn your struggles in to triumph.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“If you don’t deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and it’s gonna hurt.” – Nikki Sixx

PRAYER
Lord, help me to name my demons so that, through your power and authority, I may cast them far away from me. Amen.