In the 2013 film Man of Steel, Superman is being questioned about who he is and why he is here by a smug, snooty Lois Lane. With observers looking on behind the interrogation glass, she gazes across the table at the symbol on his chest.
Lois. What’s the S stand for?
Superman. It’s not an S. . . . On my world it means hope.
Lois, smirking and raising an eyebrow. Well, here it’s an S.
She doesn’t get it.
The vast majority of men and women don’t get it. There is something more going on, a covert and seductive and beguiling evil, something very large that celebrates appearances, success, bank accounts, and everything tied to this fallen world, which judges and evaluates a man based on his performance.
Nothing wrong with achieving and working hard—except when it defines us or when we allow others’ opinions of our attainments to assign our value or lack thereof. Neither is good for a man’s heart. A man needs more, and therefore a man can hope for more. But in order to walk in that more, we need training, because we don’t know how.
And we need healing, because every masculine heart has taken hits along its journey from boyhood to manhood. Wounded heart makes healing essential for recovery and eventual reentry into the battle to move forward with what God has for us. We aren’t meant to live wounded. And we can’t ignore the reality of the battle or remain naïve to the enemy’s devices to take us out.
