The Karate Kid

Hello readers it’s been a long time since my last post. I wish I could have been more active and I apologize to those that are disappointed but of course this is something I try to do with my free time and lately I haven’t had any. Also life has been very difficult as of late and I haven’t been motivated to do much of anything until this post which sort of relates to me and what God is showing me.

Let’s look at Isaiah 64:8:

But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.

Since there are very few potters and clay that we see today perhaps a more modern spin through the movie “The Karate Kid” will make more sense. Lately I have been going through some trials of my own and while at first glance they do not seem to relate to being molded and brought closer to God I believe that the things we go through are for that very reason.

In the movie the Karate Kid, Daniel Laruso is a young high school kid that moves to a new place and he is immediately attacked by some neighborhood thugs who are adept at the skills of hand to hand combat and give Daniel a good beating. Ironically in their first confrontation these kids are dressed as skeletons, adding a somewhat demonic theme to the scene.

Realizing that he has to face his problems Daniel turns to an unassuming older man that is the maintenance person in his new apartment complex. He finds that this man is highly skilled in the ways of Karate and can teach him what he needs to defend himself.

However Daniel does not get what he bargained for. The older man, Mr.  Myiagi puts Daniel through a series of, what appears to be, menial household chores. Painting fences, sanding deck wood, waxing cars.

Daniel cannot understand why Mr. Myiagi is putting him through such tasks and believes Myiagi is only working from his own selfish purposes and that once he completes working on his tasks then Mr. Myiagi will begin showing him the ways of a martial artist. Daniel lashes out against Myiagi and finally realizes that all he has been doing has been getting him ready as the moves he applied to painting and sanding and waxing had him repeating a variety of Karate moves again and again.

As far as realism in the movie goes I know that the movie is far from reality in this respect but the lesson here is very clear. God deals with us in much the same way. We are the student and he is the teacher. We may not understand why certain trials are put before us but the question is, will we apply our biblical teaching in these trials and let God shape us for the next task? Sometimes God allows us to get beat down so that we will finally cry out “LORD!”.

This is what God wants from us because he knows it works to our benefit. Love isn’t just pampering or being a bystander but a perfecting love. One that allows us to be hurt but learn from and use to bring us closer to God, closer to the truth. Because what happens here on Earth isn’t as important as entering God’s kingdom.

I’ve often heard atheists grumble and complain about how the people that were wiped out in the flood of Noah were killed by an evil God who committed terrible genocide. But God showed me that in the moment of those very people gasping for their last breath they would be given that opportunity to cry out “LORD!”. Just as our trials bring us to our knees so that we can cry out to God and come to know him.

We serve an awesome God. Wax on, wax off.