I have a friend. I’ll keep his identity secret for now. He is a close friend. He is ex-military demolitions and is a tough guy at heart even though his back has a couple busted vertebrae. He has defended a couple women from abusive boyfriends and such. He is a very nice person and believes in good. I hope I’m not encouraging him to get involved in other people’s disputes with this article. It may be textbook superhero to fight off evil doers in the streets, but in reality this isn’t generally a fruitful way about going about being a force for good. This is where this story begins. My friend wanting to get out of his apartment complex because he realizes it’s a bad place to raise a baby.
His daughter just recently had a baby. He doesn’t want a chaotic living place with drug dealers and drama to be a place where his daughter can come in times of trouble. Their apartment isn’t very big either, not accommodating for a family. Family means a lot to him even though his mother died at a young age, and prior to that his dad left his mom. Before his dad left his mom, he did something peculiar and something that at the time may have made no sense. His dad bought him a comic book before he hit the road. It was a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. For those of you who aren’t in the know, that is Spider Man #1. He cherished this comic book because it was the only thing he got from his dad. You’d think a young kid with a comic book that means a lot to him means only one thing: He reads it over and over. But no, he kept the comic book in pristine condition to 2010. That is 48 years.
I know what you’re thinking,”How pristine is pristine?” I saw the comic for my very eyes, and it had not a single defect. I felt a sense that I shouldn’t even be fingering up the thing. It was as mint as you can get. 48 years, with a sentimental piece, you would think it would have at least a crease or something. No, it was perfect. I’d reason from its perfect state that it was the best condition Amazing Fantasy #15 there was in existence. I’m all for a guy and his cherished objects so I never really pressured him hard to sell it. It’s the dude’s memory of his dad. He is a Godly man though and he knows not to keep idols so in the back of my mind I knew if he had a reason to sell, he might do it sometime. He loves Spiderman to death, but you gotta love Jesus more.
One of the things about loving Jesus is that you need to love others as you love yourself. Certainly loving your family is vitally important in Christianity. My friend saw a need, he wants to provide for his family. And he heard Gene Simmons of Kiss looking to buy a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. My friend emailed him, in hopes of selling his comic for maybe $60k because the economy is so bad. With $60k, my friend could buy a house and move out. Well Gene Simmons emails my friend back and states he already bought a copy. My friend is sort of bummed for a while, but somehow later a guy from New York finds Don.
This guy from New York deals in comic books, and sold a Superman #1 for two million dollars once. The guy from New York offers my friend a deal. He’ll buy his copy of Amazing Fantasy for the cool price of $250,000 and the guy will only take a 10% cut of the sale. I don’t know why my friend didn’t drive straight to New York and take the deal immediately. I don’t know why, but he got me anxious, and I was praying to God nightly that he can sell his Spiderman comic and get a house. Later the price goes up to $350,000. My friend isn’t greedy. He would have taken $60k for the book, but I guess he just doesn’t know how to finalize the deal.
Well because he wanted to keep the comic book safe, he transported it. Unexpectedly he also had to transport some kids for Halloween in the same car. The kids sat on his comic books. Amazing Fantasy #15, the best quality of its kind in existence got torn and wrinkled. Some other comic books of worth got damaged in the process too. My friend will probably never live it down, but he tells me,”I’m more focused on prayer and time with God now. Maybe I thought I could do everything on my own without him. Now that I don’t have the money coming in, I have to rely on God more.” That is probably the right way to look at it. Whatever we’re going through, we always have to rely on God. Money is no fortress against bad things happening to us. God can be there to keep things together when everything is going bad.
My friend also joked about it. The kid who ruined his comic book was dressed up like Iron Man. So my friend said,”Iron man defeated Spider Man.” In case you were wondering who would win in a battle. My friend was going to get a house for himself. He was going to build a stable environment for his grandchild. He still may have enough other comic books to sell to get his house so it isn’t the end of the world. It’s just the end of $350,000. My friend was going to do a lot with it. He was going to get a place to live, and with some of it he was going to help the poor in America who need food. I don’t know for certain, but I think he may have reasoned by selling his most prized possession he could help others who might otherwise suffer. My friend proved to spiritual principalities here that he does not hold an idol over God. My friend worships love and he does it by showing love for others.
A man may go,”Well the comic book is destroyed. Something of worth is gone forever, and the money that would be paid for that comic book can no longer help the poor. Where is God in all this even when he is being prayed to that the comic book can be sold without any problems?” This is where you need to realize that God’s ways are above our ways. You may think it is cliche to hear that, but let me explain if only for this example. No one suffered in pain from this comic book being destroyed. So the only thing of loss besides the money is the potential to help hungry people. Can’t God help hungry people far more than we can help them if he wants to? Let us leave wondering why God doesn’t help everyone right now to a later article(Keep tabs on FatherSpiritSon.com). God can help hungry people far more than we can because God has all the power to do so. God may want something more important than my friend becoming wealthy! Isn’t one person’s salvation of getting to spend eternity with God in eternal joy worth more than any amount of money on Earth? Matthew 16:26 “Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life.” If your life on this Earth means more than the whole world, certainly your eternal life even means more. So what if God saves one person through the consequences of my friend’s comic being destroyed? One of the consequences of the comic being destroyed is that I wrote this article about it. And you’re reading this article. I can’t assume you’re going to become a Christian because I make it out to seem great, but you have to admit events have changed as a result of the comic being destroyed which could turn out positive. God knows how every last event affects everything else and that’s part of him being God. A man would say,”It is bad to lose property. It is bad to lose money that was going directly to the poor.” A man would say,”It is bad to get in an auto accident and get hurt and lose your car. It is bad for a loved one to die.” But God may be up to more! The loss of property could lead to a story praising God. An auto accident could lead to someone else praying for his well being and loving God. A loved one dying as tragic, as it is,could lead to someone turning their life around to be good because they want to someday meet their loved one in Heaven again. I’m not saying these events always mean God is using them in this fashion. I am just saying that God’s ways are above our ways, and we should be able to understand that God understands how every last thing affects every other thing. God is very much at work always, but he isn’t always doing showy miracles.
I think my friend reasoned,”Help others at a loss to my own cherished possessions.” I think he thought,”Love is more important than stuff.” That is a super hero mentality. Sacrifice that what means to you so you can help others who can’t get help themselves. It is also the mentality Christians should take too. Jesus, the example of what our faith should be, sacrificed himself so that we could have life after death. Jesus is the ultimate super hero. And if we follow Jesus as disciples, we too can lead the life of a super hero. We could give of our possessions to help the poor. And we can go further to work hard to make more money to help the poor. I know that’s how I want to live even though I’m in debt right now. Imagine if everyone thought,”I want to work hard so I can help others.” I think if everyone was united, we could stamp out world hunger in this generation. We don’t have to worry about people being lazy and not working and getting a free ride of food if everyone wanted to work to help others. I don’t really think that is as much of a problem as some people think it is. We’re under constant eye of the LORD. He knows if we’re striving to help and love others. Everyone will be accountable for his or her own actions when everything is brought to light. Super heros do fantastic deeds and many possess powers mortals don’t have, but at their core is their willingness to do good. Yet, pound for pound of helping this world out, we may be able to out do good the do gooders.
Who could do more good in this world: Superman and his might, or Warren Buffet and his wealth? Could Superman single handedly stop terrorists from striking? Superman probably couldn’t do much of anything outside of a scripted event. Warren Buffet on the other hand could start farming programs across the world. These farming programs combined with a credit that the poorest of the poor could get would result in people starving to death getting the food they need to live. Then the farmers would produce sustainable food for a permanent solution as long as the farmers got some sort of compensation to continue their works. I think supply and demand works in the favor of solving world hunger. And even if I’m wrong, Warren Buffet could just directly sponsor 100,000 kids who would otherwise starve to death. In this world, a rich man can be a bigger super hero than if an actual super hero with super powers was present! I think this is why Jesus said to the rich man to give his wealth to the poor then follow him. The wealthy man would have great treasures in Heaven for being the part of a super hero on Earth.
Of course we don’t need to be rich to make a difference. Jesus said the widow’s mite was worth more than the wealthy men donating money they had to spare because the widow gave all she had to live on. Jesus judges by what portion of our wealth we give, and not how much we have. When thinking about this though, don’t be fooled by going,”I gave church my only dollar I had in my pocket. I must be in for big rewards!” if you have the ability to earn more in the future, that is factored in. Can you work hard even though you’re giving your earnings away? I think if we’re to be super heros for Christ, we should be willing to work all our lives and give away everything we don’t need to help others.
Sacrifice is not a good conclusion though. It is what we should come out of this with,and we should have a passion to do good always and be loving to even those who aren’t good and loving to us. But I want to explain something a lot of people don’t get. In Heaven, anything can happen and it won’t be boring. God could create a computer simulation as good as the Matrix where everyone seemed real, and you were a super hero just like in the comic books. This is not mere fantasy. If you want to have a reality where you’re a super hero like in a comic book, God can make that happen for you in Heaven. Anything you can dream about or imagine, God can make reality for you. Picture exploring space. It is pretty boring now. We don’t know of aliens, and everything is pretty much barren rock. Now imagine if God wanted to put the writers of Star Trek to shame. When you get to Heaven, the universe could be infinitely big and populated by a trillion to the trillionth power of alien species with lots to explore and dramatic situations you have to think on your feet… if that’s something you’d like. I sometimes think my friend is going to be web slinging in Heaven. Spider man 2 for PS2 is a pretty fun game, but could you imagine real web slinging? I know a lot of people could be flying too, flight is so often expected that to some it sounds boring. Heh. I’m to the point where all that potential for awesomeness is second to just wanting to spend time with God. Still, I know people who haven’t started their walks with Christ have heard the lie that Heaven will be boring. God is infinitely creative, infinitely powerful, and infinitely loving. God can do anything for you! Anything. So seek rewards and praise with God, and you won’t be disappointed. It is okay to tell God what your amazing fantasy would be, just realize God isn’t just Amazing Fantasies, he is much more.
Here is it when it was in great condition AKA a few months before this article was written:
I can’t get a pic of it torn up, I don’t want to break hearts anyway :P Yes, this was thought to be the possible best condition Amazing Fantasies on Earth. I held it in my hand and couldn’t believe it. If I can’t believe something I held in my hand, how much harder is it for others to believe I tell them God is real? Even Doubting Thomas put his hands in Jesus’ side wounds.
John 20: 26 A week later the disciples were together again indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!”
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”
I’m here telling you, do EVERYTHING you can to love others, never fall into the pit of hate and jealous, and yes, real super powers are available to you in prayer, and who knows what may come in this life and the next. This is beyond Amazing Fantasy, this is reality and reality is stranger than fiction.
What do you have to lose to live the rest of your life being extra cool and loving and helpful to all because you are trying to see the power in love through Jesus? We all die. If I’m right then Heaven is your destination like a true hero, eternal honor and pleasure of Heaven. If I’m wrong, doesn’t matter, we all die. But if I’m right and you choose to be a villian, then eternity of suffering is there. It ain’t a hard decision, start being most excellent to everyone. Start helping everyone you can and helping em enjoy life. And crack open the Bible, start reading. The devil lied to you all your life that there is no power in the Bible… I’m telling you, you have more than super powers now, set the comic books down for a bit and read a Bible from time to time on how to unlock your full potential.
