Things you can learn from Spiderman?

Have you seen the new Spiderman that came out this past summer?  No?  Yes?  Well regardless, I like it! While I have to admit that it can’t even come close to touching the awesome-ness of The Dark Knight Rises, it’s still a cute, fun, and entertaining super hero movie…and I mean, it has Emma Stone in it..so hello, that just makes it good on its own.  =)

I saw this movie twice in theaters. Once with my family, once in Arizona with my best friend, and tonight I watched it for the third time with the amazing family that I’m currently living with while I finish school. 

So you know how the more you watch a movie the more you notice things, hear things, remember things, ect?  Example…I could basically recite the entire movie of You’ve Got Mail or Easy A to you because yes, I’ve watched them that many times.  Well tonight, while watching Spiderman, toward the end of the movie there’s this scene that stood out to me in a huge way.  

Here’s the scene: Spiderman has to get to the Oscorp tower to save Gwen Stacy and stop Dr. Connor, but he’s hurt and doesn’t have enough physical strength left to get him there.  He can see his goal, he just can’t reach it…and of course the whole thing is being televised on the news. One man that notices Spiderman is in trouble decides to take action, to go against orders to evacuate that part of the city, and recruit his friends and co-workers to set their cranes over a specific street that will give Spiderman a straight shot to his goal.  Just when Spiderman thinks that he is going to fail, these cranes start moving into place and bring him back to hope.  He may be able to do it now.  He sums up all his strength to stand, and slowly starts to run for the edge of the building.   This clip shows the rest.

I LOVE this scene!! I’m a Christian, and while watching this scene, these bible verses about running a race kept popping into my head.  Here’s what they say:

Hebrews 12:1-Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…

Acts 20:24-However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

“run with perseverance,” “my only aim is to finish the race.”  

Spider man was totally doing this you guys! He had one goal and he was desperately fighting to reach it.  I mean, he even got tasered while trying to get there, come on.  But even more importantly than him being fixed on his one goal, is the fact that he had other people HELPING him.

Lately I feel like while I’m in the midst of running this so called race mentioned in the bible verses above, I’m either doing this: 

Or this: 

Honestly...neither of those are too great ;).  Sometimes I suck at running this race.  At times I am a very judgmental, grumpy, and pessimistic person that can be extremely good at shooting others down.  And when I’m not doing those things, I’m wrestling with temptations, cussing, saying things that I immediately regret, and just plain tripping over every little obstacle that pops up in my life.  

I learned from Spiderman tonight, that Number one…I need to be a crane operator in my friend’s lives, in my family member’s lives, and in stranger’s lives even.  I need to be willing to ignore what is “safe” for me, and go operate my crane instead.  I need to lift up others and help them run their race and reach their goals, not shoot them down.   

And Number two…even if I’ve fallen into temptation, blurted out hurtful words to others, gotten tripped up over small inconvenient things, or have been shot in the freaking thigh, I need to be willing to GET UP and sprint off the edge of the building to keep racing. When I come the hurdles, no matter how injured I feel,  or how tired I am, I can’t stop.