I watched the movie “Kick Ass” this weekend and wondered why they spent 30 whole seconds showing the older superhero standing in front of the mirror laboriously putting on his superhero makeup when they could be showing something exciting instead.
I like comic book movies because usually each detail has a purpose.
What if every laborious, boring moment in life has a purpose. Sitting by myself and struggling through a prayer. Or the nominal, impatient interactions with coworkers who I’ll never see outside of work. Or when my little brother nags on me to play with him and I think, oh he’s too young to remember if I blow him off just this once.
Well, it turns out that later in the movie the superhero has been killed and the littler, less capable boy must step up and carry out the superhero’s noble goal. Now it is the boy that steps in front of the mirror to prepare himself for the battle and my brilliant girlfriend pointed out this significance. Suddenly the moment was pregnant with huge purpose. It showed that the boy was stepping into the shoes of the real hero to continue his mission.
This made the movie deeper and more beautiful and I knew the writer to be even more ingenious than I had thought. I suddenly wanted to know who the writer was.
What if those moments when we quietly kneel in prayer, or put aside our project to listen to a coworker, or love on our little siblings when we’re tired, what if those have real significance. What if in doing so we are standing before the throne, putting on the character of Christ, and taking on his deep purpose of dying for others, even if in little ways.
And maybe if we believe that every situation God has put us in, fun or hard, has a beautiful purpose, maybe people will glimpse that in us, and want to be a part of it too. And maybe they will eventually say, “I want to know the writer.”
Raw Spoon
