Stronger To Love

From The Desk Of A Geek:

Stronger To Love 

While Cathy was working on homework, and the boys were off in their room playing video games, I decided to take the free time I had and watched a few episodes of Smallville.

For those who don't know, 

Smallville is based on the popular DC Comics character, Superman. The series follows the life of a teenage Clark Kent living in the town of Smallville, Kansas that is set at the start of the 21st century. It shows Clark Kent coping with adolescence while he is developing super powers (X-ray vision, super speed, etc.), exploring his extraterrestrial origins, and struggling to find his destiny.

In the series finale, Clark gave a grand inspirational speech to close out the show, but also, I think, to mark the moment when he really became Superman.  

That was Smallville, a pre-Superman.  Not just because he didn’t know how to use all his powers yet, or because he didn’t have the spandex suit, or because he wasn’t world famous. Clark wasn’t Superman yet, not because he wasn’t a superhero, but because he wasn’t even really Clark Kent yet.  

Little baby Clark wasn’t born with kindness and goodness and morality built into him.  All those pure qualities we know Clark/Superman to have, were something he had to be taught, and something he had to work at.  It was even something he failed at, quite often, and not even just because of red kryptonite. 

All those failures are what make his speech such a turning point.

“They may not be perfect, but I believe even in the darkest soul, there’s always hope.  People want to believe in something greater, and it may be easier to hate, but it’s stronger to love.”

(Clark Kent)

“They may not be perfect, but I believe even in the darkest soul, there’s always hope.” 

I don’t think this is something Clark always believed, at least not completely.  To be fair, he had to deal with quite a few dark people who never changed.  It’s not an easy thing to believe. After seeing so much crime and corruption, how do you believe there’s hope for the dirty businessman? the corrupt politician? the serial killer? 

How did Clark come to this belief? 

He saw what a loss of hope could do to a person.

Clark and Lex Luthor start the series as best friends, their relationship the “stuff of legend”.  But as we know, Superman and Lex are archenemies.  So how did they get to that point?  In Smallville, we see Lex’s dark past and his obsession with power.  But those things aren’t enough to change these legendary best friends into mortal enemies.  

What happens (according to Smallville) is that the trust of the relationship is broken.  Lex is too obsessed with the “weird” and unexplainable side of Clark, Clark loses trust in him, false accusations fly, and Lex loses trust in Clark.  Lex is alone, and hope is lost.

Clark completely gave up on Lex and believed that a dark soul was just who Lex was.  Clark’s and the world’s hopeless evaluation of Lex weighed him down, and it became easy to live up to people’s expectations of him.  

Clark had to learn the hard way, with lasting consequences, to never lose hope, no matter hopeless a person or situation might seem.

So what about you?  After seeing so much pain in your life, how can you believe there’s hope for the person you can’t get along with at work, or the friend who betrayed you, or the family member who can’t seem to say anything kind to you?  How do you stay hopeful?

I'm reminded of what the scriptures tells us...

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (1 Peter 1:3 NIV).

We may not be able to see the good in others, but Jesus saw the good in us and gave us hope for a new life.  So if we can receive hope to change for the better from Jesus, so can those other people.

Clark learned a lot about love and hate in his young years, often the hard way, through tumultuous romantic relationships and rocky friendships.  His many adversaries throughout the years also added to his experience.  Clark saw countless times the painful effects that a loveless past could have on a person.  How many of his villains have some sort of tragic backstory?  

Hate bred hate. It could’ve been so easy to continue that cycle and hate the villains. In his relationship with Lex, he did give in to the easy thing. It takes a strong person to return love for hate, and even our beloved Superman wasn’t always that strong. 

We know from our own experience how much easier hate can be, we can just say the hurtful things we want, we can just cut those people out of our lives, we can just write people off.  But love, love is the better option.

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” 

(Luke 6:27)

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 

(1 Peter 4:8)

I know, much easier said than done.  We’ve all heard it said that “hate is a pretty strong word.”  So what makes love stronger?

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 

(1 John 4:8)

If God is the greatest thing we can believe in, and God is love, love is the strongest tool we have to fight our enemies. 

As we all know, Superman’s insignia is the Krypton symbol for hope.  As he flies through the air, he wants to stand for that value, being a symbol people can look up to.  He wants to point people to those greater things, proving their existence and power. 

How can you be a Superman – a symbol of hope and love that can point people to greater things?  

Lonnie....