Stranger Than Fiction

What are you here for? Why do you exist? These are the kinds of questions many of us spend too much of our lives trying to avoid. Instead, we pursue the material and the temporal to distract us from our connection to the intangible and the eternal. And in the 1960's, super heroes were no exception.

At a time when comics focused almost exclusively on heroes with powers rooted in physical science and the observable world, legendary artist Steve Ditko and Stan "The Man" Lee took a chance by confronting these questions when they introduced the world to arrogant surgeon-turned sorcerer, Doctor Stephen Strange. While cosmic rays and gamma radiation were giving scientists amazing abilities, Strange's mind-bending journey of spiritual discovery forced readers to question reality. You see, on some level, we all put our trust in something and build our world view around it. For Stephen, that something was himself and his own abilities. For others it's science and repeatable data. But none of that matters the moment you get that bad news, that diagnosis, or that cop at your door. Our realities shatter around us and we're left asking the only question that matters. Why? Is this life all there is? When Stephen lost his ability to accomplish what he thought was his purpose in life, he realized he wasn't at the end, but the beginning. Like Strange, many of us spend our whole lives trying to control what we were never meant to, trying to answer the question of 'why' all on our own. It was only by surrendering his own understanding of the world as he knew it that he was able to accomplish his true purpose. And while the story of Doctor Strange may just be an awesome tale of fiction, it manages to perfectly capture how much more there is to reality than what the human eye can see. Proverbs 3 warns us not to trust our own understanding, and to let go of our ego. It's only when we put our trust in the Lord that our path becomes straight, our purpose clear. The moment you embrace Christ and put your faith in Him, you will begin to see the world like never before. You will be able to do things you never thought possible. The weak become strong, the sick are healed, the broken, mended. This isn't a comic book story, and the sooner you embrace Him, the quicker you will find the purpose you seek. The truth isn't stranger than fiction. It's greater.