I am Clark Kent

Last updated on: February 19, 2015 at 11:56 am by Kirk Franklin

I am Clark Kent 2015-02-19T11:56:17-06:00 Kirk Franklin

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Several years ago, I was on a flight to Jacksonville, Florida when I noticed the flight was full of guys with TV cameras. As we exited, I noticed familiar faces from ESPN. While walking to baggage claim I began a conversation with one of the guys.

“Why so many reporters and sports journalists all on one flight?” I asked. “What was happening in Jacksonville that would bring this level of media?

Apparently, Tiger woods was in a tournament there the next morning. But that’s not what drew the crowd. Before the tournament started, he was going to talk to the press on the allegations of an affair.

It blew my mind. All of these people were there to report on a guy who unfortunately made a mistake, a terrible mistake in his marriage. A plane — full of mostly men — had flown in to see him. Not to help him, but to drill him on falling from grace in a public scandal that would hurt many people… mainly his wife.

Wouldn’t it have been incredible if there had been a plane full of men, Godly men, who knew or heard about a potential situation in Tiger Wood’s life before he fell? Wouldn’t it have been amazing if they flew in to minister to him, love on him, pray with him? And then be real with him?

“Bro, you’re about to mess up your family and your career for a temporary pleasure! It CAN’T be that good!”

In our society, we get caught up in the super men in our worlds. We think the people in front of us, in the pulpit, in sports, on television, in the front office are super heroes. If we see their flaws, we think who am I to judge or challenge what they do?

I think that is the dumbest, most dangerous thing in the world to our brothers or sisters. The same people that we laugh at — and talk about when they fall — are the same people sometimes that someone could’ve helped before they fell… and took others along with them.

These are not supermen, they’re just a bunch of Clark Kents. Even if they don’t realize it.

It seems like it’s a bad thing these days to admit weakness, to acknowledge your own lack of power to accomplish something on your own. It’s the same when you think of how many lives could be saved if mainly men would stop fooling themselves, respond to the pain in their chest, or the lump in their neck and run to the doctor for a check up.

It’s not the doctor’s job to call your house every month and ask you how your diet is or if you are still having those migraine headaches. You have to participate in your own recovery.

And the first part of that looks like honesty.

One study I read said that the number one reason most men fell into extramarital relationships is they never thought it would happen to them. We all need the blessing of having other Godly, loving people reach out before the storm. Because we’re all weak.

I confess to you, I AM Clark Kent.

I don’t have a lot of female friends that I talk to on the phone, or meet up with for lunch. I don’t go to after parties at award shows or look at the album charts to see where my album is sitting at. I used to… all of the time. The things I mentioned above on their own are not sinful, but they are things in my life that I recognized I am not strong enough to do in my own power. I recognize my areas of weakness and acknowledge them. Heck, I even embrace them, like the apostle Paul, so that God’s power may rest even more on me. For when I am weak, Paul says, then I am strong. I know what my sinful nature loves, and I pray I never think I’m more powerful than it is. Only that Christ in me is greater.

Stop acting like you da man! Stop thinking you’re invincible. Money is not a shield, often it’s a door. Power should not be handled by people, but by prayer. To whom much is given… you know the rest. And help others, because you may need a “Nathan” to come help you someday.

We can do nothing on our own. You are a weak parent, a needy CEO, a powerless father. But if we remember this daily, the power of the greatest hero of our times promises to come and save the day.

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