Feeling Green?

Hollywood has long had a thing for green.  I’m not talking about the dollars generated by films, but by the subject of those movies.  Kermit the Frog.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or TMNT in today’s world of abbreviated speech.  Green has always been the color of success AND money. But perhaps the most famous green icon today is also the biggest.  And I mean that literally.  The Incredible Hulk.  He’s gotten so famous now we don’t even need to use his first name.  Now he’s just The Hulk. 

Who is this guy?  And I don’t mean who is his alter-ego.  Everyone knows when he’s not Green and Grumpy, he is Bruce Banner.  Marvel, the publisher that made the Hulk famous, says this about him:

"Caught in the blast of gamma radiation, brilliant scientist Bruce Banner is cursed to transform in times of stress into the living engine of destruction known as THE INCREDIBLE HULK."

My take: He is a brilliant man who, when faced with stressful situations, transforms into a destructive humanoid who resembles very little the gentle, thoughtful human being trapped inside the rampaging green monster.  Hmmm.  I’m afraid that sounds too much like me sometimes.  Do you ever have a hard time dealing with pain, injustice, rejection, or other mistreatment and find yourself transforming into an unrecognizable beast?  If so, color yourself green.

Is there a better remedy in the face of stress and calamity?  Because turning green certainly doesn’t work!  How about here:

“If you respond to my warning, then I will pour out my spirit on you and teach you my words.  Since I called out and you refused, extended my hand and no one paid attention, since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction, I, in turn, will laugh at your calamity.  I will mock when terror strikes you…and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when trouble and stress overcome you.”  Proverbs 1:23-27

Doesn’t it seem God always has a plan?  In Proverbs, He warns us that difficult times are coming.  And for all of us, they are!  But notice that God reaches out to us in advance to prepare us for trouble and stress.  God tells us that He will pour out His Spirit on us (no doubt to exercise some control) and teach us, so His Word is a part of everything we do.  Talk about stress relief!  God, the Maker of the Universe, has offered to empower you with His Spirit and fill you with His truth. 

When we filter all the damage done to us by this world, using the Word of God and the Spirit of God as our sifter, we find that calamity and stress don’t create the same response in us.  Instead, we see things through God’s eyes, and that, my brothers and sisters, is godly Wisdom. 

So apparently, the antidote to going all Hulk on the people you love is to be filled with the truth and Spirit of God.  Maybe in the next movie, they can use the words of Scripture to talk the Hulk back into his milder persona, Bruce.  I don’t know if it will work on him, but I know it works on me.  Because like Kermit says, it’s not easy being Green.

Jacob