How far would you go to not sin? Would you receive brutal beatdowns? Would you be willing to be mocked mercilessly? Would you like to be a shell of your former self?
Before you answer that, let me share with you the story that brought out some of these questions. Old Man Logan was written by Mark Millar (Wanted) as a big "What If..." series about not only Wolverine but other superheroes and villains in 50 years' time. What if the super villains finally broke Wolverine into submission? In fact, he's now so broken that he refuses to ever use his claws since the day that all of the super villains took over and essentially either killed all the superheroes or scattered them into hiding. It doesn't sound too exciting does it? A bloodthirsty superhero who is tough and has a tremendous story, and now reduced to a hardworking farmer who is broke and is in need of a financial break. Red Skull is the president of the United States, Dr. Doom is ruler over some of the territories of this new U.S. as are the Hulks and Magneto (before being killed by Kingpin). It is an evil time and it calls for desperate measures.
Enter Hawkeye, an Avenger, who is transporting something very important (Logan a/k/a Wolverine believes it to be drugs) and he promises Logan money that will take care of the monthly payments that he owes the Hulks (yes, the Incredible Hulk has offspring in this bleak future) for his farm. Logan and Hawkeye have quite an adventure as they avoid being killed by Hawkeye's own daughter (Peter Parker's granddaughter), the Moloids and a huge T-Rex dinosaur that has been infused with the Venom symbiote. Does this sound foreign to you? If you don't read comics, it should. The main thing here is that no matter what happens, Logan will not resort to becoming Wolverine again. He refuses to fight at first and when he does fight, he still does not unleash his claws in decimating his opponents. It is only until something very bad happens that Logan unleashes his inner Wolverine and decides to unleash vengeance, fury and sadistic violence upon the Hulks.
This draws up the questions again - how far would you go not to sin? It sounds simple. You could say that you would do whatever it takes but many of us do bad stuff within the first hour that we're awake. Logan is a natural born killer. He was born for this and made for a life where you kill or bad things happen. He's not only bloodthirsty but he's naturally so. Just how bad do we need to be punished (like Wolverine was) before we make a vow never to do something that comes so naturally to us again? I'm reminded that when we ask Jesus to rule our lives, we are called "new creations". I don't want to face what this character in this comic book faced but how bad do things have to get before we decide that we'll never do that bad thing again? Thankfully, there is grace, hope and love (sounds like a Bible verse don't it?). "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8). That's pretty cool. May the "Logan" win over the "Wolverine" when it comes to sin.
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Greg
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