Melissa Reddick

Have you ever watched the movie ‘Hercules’? The Disney one?

If you have, you will know what I am talking about here. If you haven’t, sorry for the spoiler but the movie has been out for decades. Maybe you should watch it when you’re done reading this.

There comes a point towards the end of the movie…wait, let me back up.

The premise of the Hercules movie is that Hercules was born a God on Mount Olympus. His parents were Zeus and Hera, the Greek God and Goddess.

Hades comes to celebrate the birth of this young God, a party to which he was not invited, and causes a scene. Later that evening, his minions capture the baby Hercules and force him to drink a potion that is meant to end his immortal life. Why does Hades want to kill Hercules? Keep reading. I’ll get to that part in a minute.

Unfortunately, these minions are kinda unreliable. They get spooked when they hear someone coming, and they leave baby Hercules behind. Hercules drank all of the potion except for one single drop. That means he was left to live with all of his God-like abilities but he was stripped of his immortality.

I want to pause here for a moment to say: the story of Hercules is one that we as humans would do well to remember is true for ourselves as well.

The movie tells the story of Hercules being rescued and raised by humans, who after a certain point don’t really know how to help him contain his strength. He learns who he is after experiencing a divine crises, what some would call a spiritual awakening, where Zeus is finally able to speak to his Son through his own statue. He directs Hercules to seek out a tutor of the Gods, Philoctetes, to help him become the Hero he is meant to become. It is his only hope of returning to Mount Olympus to live among the Gods, to be back home with his Mother and Father. There is no guarantee, but it is the only path forward.

Hercules finds his tutor, Philoctetes, convinces Phil to train him, and he grows greatly in strength and might. Hercules then travels to far off places in order to prove that he is worthy of returning to Mount Olympus and reclaim his royal place as a God.

He tries everything he can think of. At every turn, the people he tries to help turn against him, until one day, everything changes. Hercules defeats a monster that has been terrorizing a city for generations. He kills the three-headed Hydra in a dramatic display of strength and grit, and Hercules becomes a Hero to the townspeople! He saved the day! They turn him into an overnight sensation, even though Hercules had been trying to gain recognition for a long time already.

At this time, Hades didn’t know that Hercules was still alive. But after he watched Hercules defeat the Hydra, that is when he starts to realize he hadn’t died. He realizes that his minions had lied to him.

Now why did Hades want Hercules dead? Well, on the night of his birth, the Fates told Hades that there was to be a great prophesy that would be fulfilled, but ONLY if Hercules wasn’t in the way to stop it. It was at this point that Hades had to come to grips with the reality that they were now heading towards another prophesy that meant Hades’ plan to destroy everything would not succeed if Hercules fulfilled his own destiny.

Hades was committed to ending Hercules’ life. He throws everything he can think of at him, and it backfires again and again. Hercules is seen as a bigger and bigger hero because of it, he gets stronger with very win. So Hades finally discovers that Hercules has one weakness. Her name? Meg.

You have to watch the movie to get the full effect. It is definitely worth watching.

The point I really wanted to share with you comes after all of this. It is the moment when Meg is dying, and Hercules travels down through the Underworld, willing to risk his own life to save hers.

Just at the moment when the Fates would finally be able to cut his “Thread of Life”, it turns Gold. Hercules reclaims his immortality through an act of sheer selflessness. He returns to the World with Meg in his arms, his Godhood restored. He is a changed man. He looks defeated, and angry, and while he has been victorious in his quest, he has been shattered.

He knows Meg was lying to him to fulfill Hades’ plan, yet he rescues her anyway.

My reason for telling you this whole story, aside from encouraging you to watch this movie because it’s amazing, is this:

I want you to consider today, if your Super Hero was going to ascend in such a fashion, what would be the final battle you would have to overcome?

Let’s say your Super Hero self – the totality of all of the persona’s you create during this 30 day period – was sent to Earth from another planet to PROVE your Heroism and develop your Heart.

What would be the final test, the one you could never figure out, in order to restory your immortality and reclaim your seat in the Kingdom of Heaven? Or whatever planet you came from?

The next several days, before we finish this 30 day section, will be focused on honing in on your Super Hero self’s backstory. Where you came from, where you’re going back to, why you left, and what accomplishing your mission looks like from the perspective of your home planet.

Superman came from Krypton. Hercules was from Mount Olympus (even though he didn’t remember that, he was just a newborn baby when he was kidnapped). Plenty of Super Heroes travel the world and/or the galaxy to help fix things on other planets. That is what the Star Trek and Star Wars crews are doing. Even Star Fox does that!

So it’s your turn to pretend that that is what you are doing to.

Where does your Super Hero self come from?

Write down whatever answer comes to you.

Give yourself time to imagine what life was like “back home”.

One of my favorite exercises is imagining that you have already passed all the tests, and writing yourself a report card that explains what you did to do that. We will work more on that tomorrow (and I will give more of an explanation into what I mean by this). But I want you to be writing with this mindset of “I have already passed the tests. I aced the exam.” so that tomorrow we can start asking ourselves “what were the tests?”

Today, just focus on what your mission was on Planet Earth, and what was the final battle that took place that allowed you to say “I’m done. I get to go home now.”

😘💗