roadrunner570
June 26th, 2008, 09:02 PM
The Incredible Hulk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TujifzRVETA
We’re all familiar with this character. We see mild mannered Bruce Banner who is calm and unassuming. Seems like a decent guy. If you’ve watched the TV show with the late Bill Bixby’s character, you see he was working on a science project for good, but that good turned into something completely different. He ends up creating this giant, green creature he turns into whenever he becomes angry. He then spends his life trying to get rid of this beast inside of him. He wants it gone. I know in the recent movie he even says, “I don’t want to control it. I want to get rid of it.”
Each of us has a hulk inside of us. We may not think we do, and we may not realize it, but I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have one. We may call it our habit, or our “personal demons,” whatever you want to call it; it is that primitive thing that lives inside of us, that when triggered, it makes us revert back to our basic, most primal instincts. For some of us, it may be sex or porn addiction. For others, it might be drugs or alcohol. For others, it might really be their anger. One friend of mine told me that drama is her “porn.” When people begin to talk about her, she said that she absolutely cannot find the strength to walk away or let it go; she always gets sucked in and feels powerless to stop herself.
I won’t go into a list of my personal monsters here, but those of you who know me well know what I struggle with. My hulk seems to come and go in spurts. I might not see it for months or weeks. Then suddenly it wants to show itself almost daily, or several times a week. Sometimes it feels like it takes over completely. When it does take over, even for a little bit, it feels as if I’m sitting there watching myself do things I know I shouldn’t be doing. Yet I am powerless to stop it. Have any of you ever felt that way?
It is quite scary at times. Though it is not nearly as bad now as it was years ago, it doesn’t make it any easier when it rears its ugly head. This is something I have battled since I was a teenager, and as much as I have prayed and prayed for it to go away, or for God to take it away, it still remains. I’ve looked to this passage for comfort:
2Co 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Now, most believe that this was some physical ailment or disability. They are probably right, yet I still believe that it was more than just something physical. I wonder if Paul didn’t have his own hulk, a hulk he simply referred to as “thorn.” I believe that because of what is said in this passage:
2Co 12:8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
I just have to point this out, does this sound familiar to anyone? I know I have pleaded with the Lord more than three times. More like 3 million times, and that is low-balling. So even the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote almost 2/3 of the New Testament had to plead with God to remove this thorn. Just goes to show that God really doesn’t play favorites. So, what does God tell Paul?
2Co 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
This makes me think. If all Paul had was a physical problem, why would he need God’s grace? I mean, I guess it could apply. Grace is God’s unmerited favor or love. We think of grace as something God pours out on us when we’ve sinned. I’m not saying someone who is disabled does not need God’s grace. I’m just saying, that statement is a bit awkward in this passage, at least to me it is. Maybe Paul means both. So after God says this, this is Paul’s response:
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2Co 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul actually says he will delight in weakness. Because when we are weak, it is through Christ we are made strong. This can go for both physical and spiritual weaknesses. I know I am too weak to defeat my hulk on my own. I don’t know why God hasn’t taken it from me. Maybe it is to keep me humble. Whenever I’ve had an “episode,” I realize just how much I need God’s grace and strength to help me continue on. Some have told me my view of this passage is wrong, because why would God allow someone to be afflicted with some habitual sin.
I can’t say I have an honest answer, other than to allow them to be continually tested and strengthened. I know I don’t feel strong when I’ve been over powered by my hulk, but I do know that God’s grace is there to pick me back up and help me keep moving along, even when I feel like giving up. Even when I feel like I just want to give in to this hulk, this creature inside of me, and allow it to just take over for good, God is there to calm the beast within and pull me to my feet. Giving in would be easy, too easy. Just like when Jesus talked about the wide path to destruction. That is the path the hulk leads to. So I will continue to walk in God’s grace and rely on him.
For all of us, our hulk’s days are numbered. These bodies of ours are only temporary. Maybe these creatures know that, so they are trying to get out as much as they can. Either way, that is another thing we can take comfort in as well. These bodies are not our homes. They are simply a shelter in which we must co-exist with our spirit and our flesh, our hulk. So in the meantime, we must continue to fight the good fight, put on our armor each day and do battle. Sometimes our toughest battles are with ourselves. It’s a good thing we have a God who is bigger than any hulk. Knowing that is our true strength.
Tim Miller 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TujifzRVETA
We’re all familiar with this character. We see mild mannered Bruce Banner who is calm and unassuming. Seems like a decent guy. If you’ve watched the TV show with the late Bill Bixby’s character, you see he was working on a science project for good, but that good turned into something completely different. He ends up creating this giant, green creature he turns into whenever he becomes angry. He then spends his life trying to get rid of this beast inside of him. He wants it gone. I know in the recent movie he even says, “I don’t want to control it. I want to get rid of it.”
Each of us has a hulk inside of us. We may not think we do, and we may not realize it, but I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have one. We may call it our habit, or our “personal demons,” whatever you want to call it; it is that primitive thing that lives inside of us, that when triggered, it makes us revert back to our basic, most primal instincts. For some of us, it may be sex or porn addiction. For others, it might be drugs or alcohol. For others, it might really be their anger. One friend of mine told me that drama is her “porn.” When people begin to talk about her, she said that she absolutely cannot find the strength to walk away or let it go; she always gets sucked in and feels powerless to stop herself.
I won’t go into a list of my personal monsters here, but those of you who know me well know what I struggle with. My hulk seems to come and go in spurts. I might not see it for months or weeks. Then suddenly it wants to show itself almost daily, or several times a week. Sometimes it feels like it takes over completely. When it does take over, even for a little bit, it feels as if I’m sitting there watching myself do things I know I shouldn’t be doing. Yet I am powerless to stop it. Have any of you ever felt that way?
It is quite scary at times. Though it is not nearly as bad now as it was years ago, it doesn’t make it any easier when it rears its ugly head. This is something I have battled since I was a teenager, and as much as I have prayed and prayed for it to go away, or for God to take it away, it still remains. I’ve looked to this passage for comfort:
2Co 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Now, most believe that this was some physical ailment or disability. They are probably right, yet I still believe that it was more than just something physical. I wonder if Paul didn’t have his own hulk, a hulk he simply referred to as “thorn.” I believe that because of what is said in this passage:
2Co 12:8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
I just have to point this out, does this sound familiar to anyone? I know I have pleaded with the Lord more than three times. More like 3 million times, and that is low-balling. So even the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote almost 2/3 of the New Testament had to plead with God to remove this thorn. Just goes to show that God really doesn’t play favorites. So, what does God tell Paul?
2Co 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
This makes me think. If all Paul had was a physical problem, why would he need God’s grace? I mean, I guess it could apply. Grace is God’s unmerited favor or love. We think of grace as something God pours out on us when we’ve sinned. I’m not saying someone who is disabled does not need God’s grace. I’m just saying, that statement is a bit awkward in this passage, at least to me it is. Maybe Paul means both. So after God says this, this is Paul’s response:
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2Co 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul actually says he will delight in weakness. Because when we are weak, it is through Christ we are made strong. This can go for both physical and spiritual weaknesses. I know I am too weak to defeat my hulk on my own. I don’t know why God hasn’t taken it from me. Maybe it is to keep me humble. Whenever I’ve had an “episode,” I realize just how much I need God’s grace and strength to help me continue on. Some have told me my view of this passage is wrong, because why would God allow someone to be afflicted with some habitual sin.
I can’t say I have an honest answer, other than to allow them to be continually tested and strengthened. I know I don’t feel strong when I’ve been over powered by my hulk, but I do know that God’s grace is there to pick me back up and help me keep moving along, even when I feel like giving up. Even when I feel like I just want to give in to this hulk, this creature inside of me, and allow it to just take over for good, God is there to calm the beast within and pull me to my feet. Giving in would be easy, too easy. Just like when Jesus talked about the wide path to destruction. That is the path the hulk leads to. So I will continue to walk in God’s grace and rely on him.
For all of us, our hulk’s days are numbered. These bodies of ours are only temporary. Maybe these creatures know that, so they are trying to get out as much as they can. Either way, that is another thing we can take comfort in as well. These bodies are not our homes. They are simply a shelter in which we must co-exist with our spirit and our flesh, our hulk. So in the meantime, we must continue to fight the good fight, put on our armor each day and do battle. Sometimes our toughest battles are with ourselves. It’s a good thing we have a God who is bigger than any hulk. Knowing that is our true strength.
Tim Miller 2008