The Incredibles

There are times when it would be cool to know there was a superhero waiting in a nearby phone booth or around the next corner—just in case!

Sometimes it seems like bad stuff is just lining up to get us when we least expect it. You might be relaxing on a beach, singing along to the radio in your car, or surfing with your mates. Whether it’s a kitten in a tree, a burning building or an evil fiend attempting to take over the world, some situations would be really helped by the unique superhero touch!
It would be even cooler to be the superhero. Instead of watching helpless as bad stuff happens it would be great to be able to make a real difference—to save the day! But I guess there is the drawback of having to wear your underwear on the outside.

Whether we’re a superhero or not, sometimes we aren’t appreciated the way we would like to be.
We are misunderstood.

Things we do with the best intentions get thrown back in our faces.
It’s easy to give in, go with the flow and forget about striving to be better or more creative or trying to make a difference. We hang up our superhero outfits in the back of the cupboard and do our best to be just like everyone else. Don’t rock the boat!

This is the situation Bob Parr finds himself in. Bob—the former Mr Incredible—now lives in an ordinary middle-class suburb. He has a very ordinary job as an insurance clerk. He has a wife and three kids (they’re not quite so ordinary, it turns out!).

But being ordinary isn’t always easy when you know you’re really a superhero. Bob won’t let his son play sport at school for fear Dash’s superpowers will draw too much unwanted attention. Bob does however go “bowling” every week with his friend Lucius Best (aka Frozone). Really they spend the evening as incognito superheroes. It’s not much but it gives them a moment to be extraordinary in otherwise ordinary lives.

It’s easy for us to get distracted and caught up in all the ordinary stuff of our lives and forget that we are meant to be extraordinary. Sometimes the idea of being extraordinary is a bit scary. “But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of [superhero], chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted,”* from ordinary to extraordinary. You don’t even have to wear your undies on the outside.