In 2017, Power Rangers and the Justice League crossed paths in a Boom! Studios and DC Comics miniseries, and Zack, the Black Ranger, spent most of it drowning in guilt over a mistake that started the whole mess. Celeste talks through what Zack’s guilt gets right, what it gets wrong, and what Superman actually tells him about it. She also dig into Titus 2:11-12 and what it means to live with grace that trains you instead of grace that just excuses you. Plus, Power Rangers Month kicks off at Geek Devotions.

Blog Version

In 2017, Boom! Studios and DC Comics put out a crossover where the Power Rangers accidentally end up in the Justice League world. Zack is the one who inadvertently allowed it to happen.

Throughout the story, we see him carrying the guilt of it, time and again. He feels guilty. He’s upset that he did this. He understands it was bad, and he uses that to fuel his attempts to help.

Today we’re talking about what to do when you mess up. And grace.

Zack’s Guilt

Zack takes his guilt over accidentally bringing Zedd and the rest of the Power Rangers into the DC world, putting Earth, Angel Grove, and everybody he loves in danger, and he uses it to fuel himself to help, to try to make himself better.

But through all of it, he’s verbally and mentally beating himself up.

At one point, Superman comes to him and says, “This is not your fault, son. This is the fault of bad men.” And while it’s not his fault that Zedd and Brainiac decided to do what they’re doing, he is the one who led them across. So he’s holding himself to the responsibility of the fact that he did that.

As believers, it’s easy to beat ourselves up when we mess up and we should know better. We should know better because we believe in God than to do the dumb things, than to say the dumb things, than to be the dumb things.

What Grace Actually Says

But we have to keep in mind that God has grace for us. Titus 2:11-12 says it like this:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”

Clearly there are several things we can take from this verse, one of which is that we are supposed to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives. That is something we are supposed to do as believers.

But there are two other things we can take from this.

One, God’s grace has given us access to salvation. He has given us salvation because he wants to be in relationship with us. He wants us to come to heaven. He does not want to send us to hell. And even though he will, if he needs to, he doesn’t want to. He wants you to accept his grace.

And number two is this: His grace that was given to us was given so that we can train on how we should act. Which means that while we know God, he also knows that we are humans and we do not have his perfect nature.

We are also responsible to train ourselves. And when you train, you’re responsible for fixing the things you mess up.

Fixing It Without Beating Yourself Up

Zack may have been beating himself up to the point of detriment, and that’s not okay. But in the beginning, when he was just trying to fix things and was not allowing it to beat him down, that was okay.

Because we have the responsibility, when we mess up, to do our best to fix it. And even if fixing it is just not doing the thing again.

But we cannot live in self-condemnation. Because if the God of all heaven and earth has the grace to forgive you for a mess up, then who are you to not forgive yourself, or forgive others for that matter?

It’s Not Your First Rodeo, and That’s Okay

God never expected us to not struggle with things. He knew this. And he has provided a way and a mindset to be able to learn and grow.

He has given us the ability to have instant sanctification with salvation, as well as progressive sanctification. Meaning we need to work at it. We’re not going to get it right the first time, and that’s okay.

Even if it’s not our first rodeo, because that’s a very low number of rodeos, we can still learn and move on.