Sometimes I wonder, especially in my younger days, why it is/was that the heroes always wait until they’re pretty much dead to bust out with their final form or ultimate attack to wipe out the enemy. I saw one explanation for this, or rather was told by a friend, in the new Voltron series. The explanation was that if the heroes busted out with their ultimate attack at the beginning that alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat the enemy. On top of that, the hero would then be too drained and weary to finish the fight. I find this a reasonable explanation I suppose, though if it can’t kill your opponent in one strike I don’t really think it has any business being called your “Ultimate Attack”. I’m just sayin’.

Oh, by the way, the reason why I haven’t seen the new Voltron series despite being a fan of the original? “Voltron-riffic!”

Nuff’ said.

But I digress. Another explanation I’ve seen/heard is the one that was most common when I was younger. The idea was that the hero had to be pushed to the brink of death and truly realize what all could and would be lost if they didn’t push themselves enough to win and save their friends. This rush of power, hope and desperation would then push the hero to reach new heights and grasp power they didn’t realize that they had. The excuse for them getting their teeth kicked in when they’re older is of course that they grew derelict in their training during the years of lasting peace (despite all of them admitting that they always knew/feared that the evil they slew would one day return…)

The third and most obvious answer is because it adds to the dramatic tension and makes for a good story. I suppose many games/anime/movies/tv shows would be boring if the villain was all like “AND NOW HERO, WE WILL HAVE OUR-” and then the hero was all like “GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT” and the villain is like “Wait, what are you doing? We’re supposed to have a long drawn out-” and then the hero’s all “DIVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and then the villain is all “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” and then he dies. Even so…you would have a lot more blood in you as opposed to on the floor if you took that approach.

A common scene in most every RPG is the “We’re all about to enter the penultimate ‘we might die here’ battle, so, let’s talk to everyone in our party and possibly make kissy face first” scene. This is a good scene to have, because in the hands of a good writer it allows you to see deeper into the characters involved. More importantly, we get to grasp a strong sense of humanity with our otherwise surreal heroes. We may not always identify with the spiky haired warrior with the broadsword or the fair skinned hero or flawless damsel, but we can identify with the mortality of death.

If any of us knew that we were about to walk into a situation where we might die, I think the prevailing sentiment would be to do what you’ve always wanted to first or else tie up whatever loose ends you might have. If I were going into my end of the world battle, there’s a lot I’d like to resolve first. I’d like to make sure that my father knows that I love him and respect him even if we don’t always see eye to eye. I’d like my mother to know that she is my gem and that she is the best mother I could possibly have asked for. I’d like my sister to be reminded that she is both my favorite person and my favorite toy in the whole world. I would like my nephew to know that I believe in him, and have faith in the wonderful things that he is already doing and will continue to grow to do. I’d like for all of my friends to know, well, I’d like them all to know Jesus, but working more with something I could do in half an hour I’d like them all to know that I am praying for them, and that life is too short to keep getting stopped up by our own hangups and miseries past.

I don’t have kids and I don’t have a special someone, but I do have a Pomeranian that I would totally be dumping off on my parents to take care of in my possible absence 😀

One thing that I would not do is sleep, probably. Not for any grand reason such as “Time is too short/too precious”, but really because I just function better under fire. I don’t know what it is, but when everything is chill I tend to procrastinate a lot. When there’s a crisis or things get down to the last minute though, that’s when I’m able to just calmly remove myself from the situation and resolve whatever is going on at the time. I tend to be better at solving other people’s problems than my own, as in the words of Alice “I give myself very good advice, but I seldom follow it”. My friends and loved ones will find themselves in a dreadful pickle, and I calm myself while everyone else is panicking and God deposits a solution.

I can’t help but smile as I write this; someone I know would say that statement is egotistical, but it’s really not. I’m simply blessed to keep a level head when something is outside of directly being in my path. Now, for reasons I can’t possibly explain I tend not to fly into full on panic mode, but lack the capacity to detach myself and find a solution without stressing when it’s my own problem. I’m sure there’s some buried psychological issue/wound/hangup somewhere in my past about that, but, eh. I’ve learned not to dwell to heavily on the past; it’s done and can’t be changed, only learned from.

So let’s get back to power. I wouldn’t sleep. When I think back to every other major or important battle that I’ve had to face, I tend not to sleep more than an hour, get a horrible excuse for a breakfast generally consisting of coffee, strawberry gummies and beef sticks (sometimes a muffin), showing up with a handful of minutes to spare thus giving myself no time to prepare for battle, and then waltzing through the field of combat as though I’d planned the whole thing in advance. Spoiler alert: I didn’t and rarely ever do.

So I think it’s funny. While everyone else would be getting a good nights rest after the obligatory “talk to everyone” chapter, I probably would be sitting in my room staring at the ceiling contemplating bacon and why it’s so utterly wonderful. I’d then probably slump into our shuttle and everyone else would be like “Yeesh, you look like crap!” and I’d be like “Coffee…beef sticks…” and then we’d go fight ultimate evil and kick it in the craw 😀

I think a lot of us tend to function better under fire. Not all of us, but a lot of us. I think it’s also true that a lot of us are better at dealing with other people’s problems than our own. The solution is always so much simpler when it’s not our own heart that we’re trying to change.

Something else that I think about with the heroes busting out their true power near death is the idea of God’s last minute rescues. If I’ve learned nothing else in my relatively short time on this Earth, it’s that God is a really, really big fan of His last minute rescues. I used to think of it more in regards to my own life, how things would always wait until their absolute bleakest before something amazing would happen, but then I really thought about the stories I hear about other saints around the world as well as the Bible itself.

We very rarely ever read about a situation that looks like maybe it’s gonna go south and then God’s like “Oh no, it’s cool, it’s already done”, at least not in the way we see it. For every situation God is already going “I already saved you”, but of course he’s already lightyears beyond the endgame while we’re still mucking about at the start. An example for instance could be Moses and the Israelites. The endgame and their salvation was already set, but that salvation didn’t come at the beginning. Moses and company went through a great period of tribulation before God delivered them, though their salvation was already at hand. Every step of the way even as they suffered, God comforted them and ultimately led them out to freedom. Even after they forsook Him and spat upon His name, He still saw fit to protect them, to deliver them, and to bless them again and again.

When we endure tribulation and feel there is no way out, that is when we call upon God’s divine power the most to save us. We don’t ever truly get our praise on until we feel like we’ve hit the impossible. Many of us wait to exhaust all of our human options before we call out for God’s supernatural one. When we hit that point that is the lowest of the low and we cry out to our Father to save us, none can say any other than God stepped in to protect and deliver them. We seem to only truly find the time to give fierce glory and praise in our darkest hours, and we suffer spiritual amnesia when things are going good.

The endgame, the ending is not always the one that we want, but it is always the one that we need. Speaking from experience, I went through quite a devastating loss some two years ago (was it two? That’s a clear sign God delivered me as any other; I think about it so rarely I can’t even find the time to be aware of when it happened or how long it’s been :D), and I crashed something awful. I was in so much pain, and I never thought I’d be happy again. Every day I cried out to God to step in and fix things, and in my eyes he never did. The situation didn’t change, it just got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. The harder that I tried to effect positive change in the situation, the more hurt I became while the other party continued on footloose and fancy free.

I was so angry with God. I hated Him. I truly did. I thought to myself “I have done everything that you have ever asked of me! I have not been a flawless servant; no one is, but I HAVE DONE ALL THAT YOU ASKED OF ME! SO WHY? WHY WON’T YOU FIX THIS?! WHY WON’T YOU MAKE THIS BETTER?! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!?!?!?! WHAT MORE CAN I GIVE?!?!?!?! …what more can I lose?”

Why didn’t He step in? What was wrong with the situation? Why didn’t I get the outcome that I begged for? Simple: it wasn’t in His will. Why did I hurt? Because I was the one blocking my own blessing.

Sometimes what we want with all of our heart isn’t what God wants for us. At the time that can seem impossibly unfair and cruel and unusual and so on and so forth, but, it’s really not. As a child, I wanted to eat nothing but marshmallows and eggs (though not at the same time…often…), but of course my parents wouldn’t allow that. What I wanted wasn’t good for me. They knew better. I’ve learned that God always knows better. Even if I don’t like His plan at the time, it always works out the best in the end.

Ultimately the outcome that I thought I wanted never came to pass. I’m now at a place where I honestly hope it never does. The life and the blessings and the path that God has given me is so much greater than anything I could have possibly imagined; had I gotten what I thought I wanted I sincerely doubt I would have what I know that I do.

Waiting on God isn’t always easy, but we’re far from the last boss fight of our lives. You need any further evidence that you are not the exception but the rule? God waited until His son was dead to rescue him; it doesn’t get any more last minute than that. Yet and still, rescue him He did. In the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (a movie that does not house ideals I completely agree with, but a beautiful one worth watching nonetheless) there is a line that goes “In India we have a saying. Everything will be alright in the end. If everything is not alright, then it is not yet the end.”

I couldn’t possibly agree with this more. We will constantly be under fire, but God will constantly give us the strength to overcome that fire if only we truly believe and call out to Him to do so. For those that believe, He has already given and deposited within us all the blessings that we will ever need; we need only withdraw from that bank and utilize that power. For those that don’t, well, you can’t possibly expect God to keep bailing you out if you claim not to even believe in Him. He does not abide sin nor does He dwell in it; as Pastor Tony Evans said “God isn’t gonna come in the club to pull you out of it.” If you’re tired of your situation, try something new; try Him.

I was gonna work More Than a Fairytale into this discussion and mention how Xea doesn’t truly grasp the power that’s truly needed until the battle with the Empress forces this change to happen, but, I think that can wait for another time. Hopefully y’all got something out of this; I know I certainly did.

God bless everyone, and to everyone a good night (or morning or afternoon wherever you are).

-Eugene W.
a.ka.
Xeawn