How overwhelmingly sad the world can seem at times.

When the fires rage and cause the sun to cast orange shadows on your breakfast table … when videos come out with sickeningly graphic details about the harm done to the smallest of small lives … when those you love get struck with illness … when dreams don’t come true and people fail you – it can seem like the sky will be forever gray.

And in the midst of it all, sometimes you just feel like a prodigal son every single day – running away from the Father’s love, forgetting His grace, choosing your sin instead of obedience.

Life can be unbearably hard sometimes.

And because of that, we are always searching for a hero to put our hopes and dreams in – someone who can do the impossible – or the impossibly hard task – the one who will save us from all the hard things we face. We want to admire he who can do what we can’t – and we want to be like them.

But human heroes will always disappoint us. They have a fatal flaw system that no matter how much we don’t want them to fail, they still will in one way or another.

How many times have we looked at someone whom we thought was a hero, and because of their failure, thought, “I’ve lost my faith in humanity”?

Maybe we’re disappointed because we’re putting our faith in the wrong place. Put your faith in “humanity” and you will be disappointed every time. Put your faith in Christ, however, and He will never fail us.

Christ is the ultimate Hero – the One Who Does Not Disappoint. When we can’t, He always can. Where we give in to temptation, He never did – which is why He’s the perfect substitute for our guilty selves – and why His story is so scandalous. Who would ever willingly trade in the perfect for the blemished so that the blemished could be saved? This is the picture of the cross which brings me to my knees in worship. I am humbled by such love – humbled by such a pursuit – humbled by my Hero’s sacrifice.

When the world fails me again and again and leaves me lonely and unspoken for, my Savior, the King of Kings wraps infinite arms of love around me. He reminds me that He’s won the victory, and I simply need to trust Him.

How beautiful when He woos this prodigal heart. How sweet His gracious reminders again and again that He is altogether more satisfying than any temptation that comes whispering. How final His victory on the cross – for my sin past, present, and future.

Foolish me, thinking that I was a sinner, that I needed the Gospel … no, I am a sinner in need of the Gospel every day. Every struggle I have is not a surprise to Him – He knows I will constantly fail Him – and that’s what makes His love so beautiful.

I can’t save the world in all of its many crises. All I can do is whisper fervent prayers for those whose lives are in danger by flame or by surgical tools. But I know the One who came to earth – who slipped on the mantle of flesh so that He could forever save us from death, sin, guilt, and eternal separation from Him. He’s the only one who can.

And by His grace, I’ll fall more in love with that Hero every day.