One of my favorite lines from the new movie, The Avengers, is when groggy Bruce Banner rouses in a pile of rubble after his transformation from being the Hulk, and a local farmer eyes him warily and says, “Son, you have a condition.” Being a hero isn’t always about using superpowers and defeating the bad guys. Sometimes, being a hero is tough work. Sometimes, it isn’t fun at all. Sometimes, it just plain hurts.

What makes an act heroic? One element is that it requires the willingness to put oneself in a potentially dangerous situation that the rest of us could not – or would not – do. Think of a firefighter who enters a burning building to rescue someone, a police officer who chases an armed criminal or a soldier facing live ammunition.

Although we like to focus on the accomplishments of our favorite heroes, part of the job description for being a hero can also mean suffering – physically, emotionally, even socially. The prophet Isaiah talked about the suffering of a hero, many years before the hero was even born. In chapter 53, he foretells that Jesus would be despised and rejected, and that he would be “familiar with pain” (v. 3).

The apostle Paul, arguably one of the great heroes of the Bible, continued Isaiah’s line of thinking in his letter to the Philippians when he said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings” (3:10, NIV). Did you catch that? He didn’t just say that he wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, but he added that he wanted to know Jesus so deeply that he even suffered with/for him.

If we are to truly become heroes, then we have to move beyond just desiring power, authority and special abilities. We need to be willing to bear the burden of suffering for our faith, if and when the time comes. (And if we’re close to Christ, then those times will come.) Like Bruce Banner was tested to manage his rage and first-responders are tested to exhibit courage in the face of danger every day, we will be tested to determine if our faith is legit (Romans 8:16-18). When we come out on the other side of that suffering time, though, then we will share in Christ’s glory – not to the benefit of our own egos, but in celebration of God’s mighty power.