Waiting for My "Superman"

Last night, my roommates and I invited our support people over to make pizza and watch the documentary, "Waiting for Superman". If you haven't seen it, you should because I am an educator, I know what's up and I was still shocked by a lot of the education policies and activities going on in our country. The documentary begins with a kind of explanation of the title: a man, Geoffrey Canada, explains that when he was little, living in a very rough part of New York, he would watch Superman and anticipate his arrival...Canada would wait for Superman to come and save him from the horrible situations he was in. One day, his mother told him that Superman wasn't real and he was never going to come. Canada was devastated, as he said, because "all hope of getting out was gone". In some ways, I feel like we are all waiting for our Superman to come and "save us".

We are all waiting for the day when someone or something will rejuvenate and revitalize our hope, passion and love for whatever gray area we have in our lives. I know that I'm waiting for my metaphorical "Superman" to come and inspire my spiritual life. I'm waiting for "Superman" to assist in my prayer life, my personal life and my spiritual growth. I'm waiting for a breath of fresh air to come and pump new life into my spirituality. I'm waiting for something to take over and push me.

In the documentary, Canada points out that the only way he got beyond the "Waiting for Superman" mentality was by pulling himself out of the muck all by himself. He climbed out of and motivated himself to become a successful educator. In this way, he stopped waiting and started doing.

In this day and age, it is so easy to just sit back and wait...wait for life to come to you (which it never will), wait for people to find you (which might happen) and wait for our "Supermen". The thing that I feel has plagued our country is not just laziness but a lack of motivation; a lack of self-reliance. We are all waiting for our "Supermen" to come and fix things, make things easier, and breathe fresh life into our gray areas. It's most likely not going to happen. The only way we can actually find fulfillment or use our gifts to the fullest is by becoming our own, personal Supermen. It's not going to happen over night and it, of course, is not going to be easy; but playing the waiting game just doesn't seem like the plan God had for us when He made everything...it doesn't seem logical and it certainly isn't effective.

Lent starts in two weeks, I am going to strive to be a Superman...a person who is self-motivated, self-reliant and self-driven. I am going to improve my spiritual life and if I feel it's going well, I'm going to try and be a Superman for my kids...sometimes one just gets sick of waiting for her Superman to come; I guess that's when the true self-growth and transformation to adulthood begins.