Super Trooper Redefined

Super:  anything of excellent or superior quality. 

Trooper:  a member of a cavalry unit or a police officer.  

Super Trooper: a ridiculously whacked out cop who thrives on tormenting others, who finds satisfaction in moral degradation, and who has ambitions equivalent to those of a street rat.  

The above definitions aside, I’d like to claim that I discovered a new and much more noteworthy definition of what a Super Trooper is last week. 

Super Trooper: A nearly one-year-old baby who has to suffer for 18 hours with a dislocated elbow (thanks to her unknowingly clumsy momma) who still finds strength to smile and laugh amidst sharp shoots of pain. 

Super Trooper: a little girl who manages to sleep an entire night uninterrupted while her arm is four times its original size due to a rigid splint and tenser bandage. 

Super Trooper: a baby girl who endures the agony of having her elbow snapped back into place and who gurgles with glee the moment she realizes that she can move her arm again. 

A Super Trooper worthy of mention is a 2-year-old who can sincerely claim to be happy while talking to her aunty on the phone amidst bouts of vomiting. 

A Super Trooper, if I’ve ever seen one, is a brave little child who dares to sleep in her own bed, in a room by herself, while repeatedly waking from fits of sickness.

I’m pretty sure I saw a Super Trooper every time I scrambled to rub my daughters back as she heaved with hardly a complaint. I saw a real Super Trooper each time my girl willingly changed her clothes and crawled back into a bed lined with scratchy towels covering up remnants of puke that missed the bucket.  And when that little girl waved at me and said “Goodnight mom, I love you” every time I left her that long, sick night, I’m pretty sure I was blowing kisses to a Super Trooper.

Last week, I saw examples of the kind of Super Trooper I want to be. 

I want to be a Super Trooper that can bear pain and challenges with bravery and grace.  I would be honoured to be a Super Trooper who is humble and open enough to admit fear and doubt but who can also find strength to offer a hug, smile, and words of compassion in hard times.  I’d love to demonstrate faith and courage while facing the unknown; and to exhibit forgiveness and love when I am confronted by the ugly truth of my own mistakes as well as the blunders of others.

The kind of Super Trooper I’d like to be seems lofty and impossible to achieve.  But a Super Trooper of the redefined kind wouldn’t turn around and sit in defeat.  A Super Trooper earning my respect would continuously strive to attain the standards of her definition despite her recurring setbacks. 

Last week, I saw two Super Troopers.  They were little, but they were brave!  They were young, but they showed age-defying determination!  They were insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but in my world, they were gigantic examples of the type of Super Trooper that I wish I could be!

I know I can’t be a Super Trooper on my own.  I would fail before I even started.  But, Dear God, take me by the hand and help me to be the kind of Super Trooper that you can be proud of.  Jesus, mould me to be even a fraction of the Super Trooper that you designed me to be in the first place.  Father, continue to open my eyes to the amazing examples of Super Trooper-ness around me so that I have something to model and strive towards each day. 

And God......thanks for the two amazing little Super Troopers I get to kiss and hug every day.  I stand amazed.