Life sucks.

See, now that's the type of profound wisdom you look for from a minister, isn't it? The fruit of a four year degree from a Bible College and a brand of sophisticated enlightenment that can only be attained with years of theological devotion?

Well, simple as it may sound, it's true. And it's the reason that Batman is undoubtedly the greatest super-hero of all time.

That's right, I said it - Batman is a super hero. And I refuse to argue about that. I get that he doesn't technically have any super powers, and I'll grant that without the help of his loyal butler, Alfred (not to mention Morgan Freeman in the new movies), he probably wouldn't last a week battling the villainy of Gotham City. But despite the evidence to the contrary, this is my blog dang it, and I'm going to call him what I want to call him. And Batman's story is so amazing, it reads like something from the pages of scripture.

Batman didn't get bit by a radioactive animal or come from another planet or receive special powers through any other normal comic literary device. Instead, Batman got to be where he is through good old fashioned pain. As a boy, Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents, and it scarred him for life. Instead of coping in a 'normal' way like, say, going to therapy or grieving through loving human interactions, Bruce bottled up his emotions until the day he would dress up like a creature of the night, circumvent the law, and get his vengeance on every criminal he could get his Bat-hands on. In other words, in Batman, we see a character that suffered immense agony, and instead of being crippled by that pain, used it as the impetus for a positive change in his life and in his world.

And in that way, Bruce Wayne would fit right in with the characters of the Bible. Think about it - Moses was nearly killed as a child, rejected by two civilizations, and was a hermit for forty years. Oh, and then he led God's people out of slavery and wrote their national constitution. Daniel was taken from his home into forced slavery, making his foray into the lion's den only mildly horrible in comparison to the rest of his life... before he became one of God's greatest prophets. Noah, for his part, spent his entire life mocked and ridiculed for believing in a God who would one day make it rain, and Job lost literally everything, not the least of which was his dignity as he whined and moaned for forty chapters before God put him in his place. Of course those two survived to repopulate the earth and taught God's people a powerful lesson (while being exponentially blessed in the process), respectively. And you definitely don't want to be named 'Joseph' in the Bible; one guy was sold my his brothers and one was basically taken on the Maury Povich show and told that he was not the father of his fiancee's child. Of course, Old Testament Joseph ended up reigning over the largest empire in the world at the time, and Joseph raised the son of God, so it worked out, I'd say.

That's just the start - the disciples were, at best, bumbling idiots and at worst, terrorists, but they started the church and saved countless souls for God's kingdom; the early church was killed by the bushel at the hands of Rome on their way to systematically infiltrating every nook and cranny of it; and of course, they were all following a peaceful carpenter who was killed unjustly and just so happened to redeem all of mankind after his resurrection three days later. The pattern is the same: these people persevered through extreme hardship and came out on the other side using that pain to do something amazing. Without their pain, their contributions to God's kingdom and the world wouldn't have been possible.

And that brings us back to our original premise: life sucks. You and I live in a world of constant turmoil and tragedy, and the truth is, we will all go through horrible pain in this life. But you can be Batman (not literally, of course. Though if you do decide to dress up and become a masked vigilante, remember that nipples are in no way necessary on your Bat-suit); you can be just like one of scripture's biblical figures. No matter what it is that you, personally, have to deal with, your pain is not in vain. You can use that pain as the stimulus for change in your life, and you can bless other people with the knowledge and experience that your life has given you. You can make a difference in your world, and in that way, find joy in your pain. You may not think that makes you a super hero, but you have a lasting impact for good in the lives of those around you. And that, friends, can only be described with one word:

Heroic.