Anyone remember the movie The Incredibles? There’s a superhero dad (Bob) in the movie and he is just fed up with the normal job. He sells insurance, it’s a good job, but it’s not the job for him. He starts doodling on a sketch pad, drawing different superhero suits because he wants to go back to what he does best! He draws some really cool suits too. All of them have one thing in common though, they have capes. Because that is how most superheroes dress, and he wants to be the same as them.

He has a friend, Edna, who makes superhero uniforms, and every time he shows her a design she keeps telling him to lose the cape. She shows clips of other superheroes who have met their end because of capes- like getting sucked into a jet engine. One of the best lines in the movie was when she says, “No capes.” Her point I think, is that you can get a lot more stuff done without a cape. I think Jesus agrees.

It seems like every time Jesus did an incredible thing, He would say something similar to the people nearby. He raised a little girl from the dead and what did he say? “Tell no one.” He met one chap with leprosy and healed him and said, “Tell no one.” He healed two lads who were blind. You guessed it, he told them the same as the others. “Tell no one.”

It’s funny, we are in a world that can be driven by self-promotion, Jesus gave us something different. Jesus was saying instead of telling people about what we’re doing all the time, there’s a better way. One that doesn’t have a cape that we get snagged on – something like ourselves! Perhaps Jesus wants us to be secretly incredible instead.

Jesus hardly talked to anyone about what He’d done. The Bible never depicts one of those end of camp sideshows where Jesus goes over everything He had done with His disciples.

He didn’t brag over His miracles, He just did them told them not to tell anyone and kept on going.

There are other examples of this type of person in the Bible. Remember Judas left the twelve disciples for being a bold boy? The apostles had to choose a new member to join them and they narrowed it down to two men. One guy was named Matthias, and the other guy was nicknamed Justus. They cast lots to determine who the new member would be. I like to think they did rock-paper-scissors best two out of three. Anyway, they picked Matthias. He got the nod and got the privilege of being in every stained glassed window from then on. But what happened to Justus? We never hear about him again, yet he did all the right things, saw all the right stuff, knew who Jesus was, and was a faithful guy. Poor lad.

I think a lot of people could relate to Justus. People who don’t get capes or stained glass windows. We just get the opportunity to do what God wants us to do without all the fanfare.

Even though Justus lost rock paper scissors, I bet he was one of those secretly incredible guys who just kept on being incredible. We can have this opportunity too. Not getting noticed can feel like a real injury, but it’s not. Its people like us who can be secretly incredible and get the most done.

This is the way Jesus’ reverse economy works. God loves the humble ones, and the humble ones often don’t get the jobs with big titles or positions. But they would be God’s first choice when He is looking for someone to use in a big way.

Jesus message is a simple one. We all get to be awesome if we want to be. Rather unsurprisingly, the best way we can do this is by being secretly incredible, but not wearing capes.