This month I did something I had only dreamed of: I spent the weekend with Superman. It was amazing. I saw things that I thought would have been impossible, things that no mere mortal could have accomplished, things that gave me hope in something bigger.
Part of the team in front of the thirty foot Superman statue in Metropolis, IL.
When I left for Metropolis, IL, it was to take part in a mission trip with groups of men from two churches. These churches both are located in Centerville and are less than three miles apart. However, what these guys managed to figure out is that there is more that keeps them together than separates them. So, they developed a team and set out to do something that would make each of them Superman. Over the course of the weekend, they laid concrete, installed insulation, and hung drywall. The amount of work they were able to accomplish was AMAZING.
What makes each of them Superman isn’t the work they did, although it seemed pretty super, but rather how they worked. They managed to move from room to room with each person instinctively knowing what needed to happen. There was no fighting and no bickering -- just a lot of great people doing whatever it took to get the job done. These men found a way to impact this community, by rebuilding a small part of a small town that had been torn to pieces by a tornado.
The reality is that on our own we aren’t able to do something so incredible. On our own we can do some pretty cool stuff, but what makes us super is when we find a way to come together as a team and to work hand in hand in order to accomplish something greater than what we could do on our own.
Superman isn’t one person who leaps tall buildings with a single bound. Superman is a group of people who come together to give a gift that no one person could ever give alone. These faithful men demonstrated that to me this particular weekend and reminded me of an important lesson: We can always do more together than we can do separately. Now, if I could only have found a way to get them all in a phone booth…