At the beginning of the movie The Incredibles, we see the star of the show, Mr. Incredible himself dressed in a ho-hum outfit, driving a car that is way too small for him, while coming home from a job that he does not like. All superhero activity has been banned by the government, so he and his family have had to go undercover and hide their superhero identity – he had to be secretly incredible. He is so frustrated that he slams his car door with enough force that it breaks. Then he sees a young boy on a bike who had been watching him the whole time. He engages in a stare down and eventually yells at the boy, “Well, what are you waiting for?” and the boy responds, “I don’t know. Something amazing, I guess.”
This kind of describes what many are feeling. We’d like to be doing superhero business, but we feel a bit stuck with the current state of our world. So, how do we adopt the mindset of the young boy and be expectant of something amazing? John 15:7-11 holds the answer.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit*; so you will be My disciples. “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
*Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The secret is in abiding. When we abide in Christ, our prayers are effective (v. 7), we glorify God in our fruit bearing (v. 8), we demonstrate our discipleship (vs. 8-10), and our joy becomes full through experiencing Christ’s own joy within us (v. 11).
As the movie continues, Mr. Incredible and his family have to come out of hiding to save the day. They put on their superhero suits and get busy. Together they worked to save the world and the ending scene, which is filled with lots of drama, explosions and ultimately the good guying winning, has that same young boy sitting on his same bike watching it all happen. And then he screams, “That was totally wicked!” He got to see the “amazing” that he was waiting for.
This world needs you to put on your superhero suit and get busy. If you aren’t feeling very super, if worry has replaced faith, if joy has been replaced by sorrow, if you have trouble seeing the fruit in your life, then trace things backwards a bit. I bet you will find that you stopped abiding in Christ. Perhaps you were trying so hard to fix things that you lost focus of the One who has all the answers.
So now I ask you just like Mr. Incredible asked the boy – “Well, what are you waiting for?” Let’s approach this year by choosing to abide in Him and allowing His Word to abide in us as we expect “something amazing” in the days and weeks ahead.