I was at a friends place yesterday catching up about life, etc....
Her husband came home and put on Karate Kid in the background while we were scrolling through some stuff on the laptop. Eventually we gave in and started watching the movie. Its the remake with Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son... I hadn't particularly wanted to watch the movie at all but it was on so why not?
You might be wondering what Karate Kid has to do with God... at first glance... not very much... I wasn't particularly looking to hear from God in that hour or so and definitely wasn't looking for him in a movie...
But as I was watching it came to the part where Dre (Will Smith's son's character name) asks Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) to teach him Kung Fu.... wait a minute... isn't this called Karate Kid not Kung Fu Kid? Anyways I digress...
Dre is thrilled and excited to start learning but to his surprise Mr. Han doesn't teach him fancy moves... instead he makes him take off his coat, put it back on, hang it on the post, drop it to the ground and repeat... over and over and over.. through rain and shine...
Dre starts getting irritated... okay Mr. Han, I get it.. I need to pick up my jacket and not throw it on the ground... Dre feels as if he's learned his lesson, has had enough of this practice and starts walking away...
And then Mr. Han calls him back... reluctantly Dre comes back... Mr. Han tells him to put on his coat but this time Mr. Han prohibits him from putting it on... again Mr. Han tells him to drop the coat and pick it back up... and again Mr. Han blocks him... and from there the real exercise and practice begins...
As I was watching I was joking with my friend how God does that to us sometimes... makes us do things that we see no point in doing... but as I watched more... the truth started sinking in more deeply. There are many, countless times that God asks us to do things that seem so foolish, so pointless to our understanding... grudgingly we do them but complaining the whole time... and even like Dre we think we already know the point of the lesson... to be more clean, to be more respectful of our mom, etc... whatever it is.. fill in the blank.... but little do we know the true purpose... the deeper reasoning of God... that in the little things He can prepare us for the bigger things...
It may sound cheesy... but how many times have we questioned God's motives or told him.. ok God enough already I've already learned what I needed to... without realizing that the Almighty has something much bigger in store if we only stick it out awhile longer... to do things not on our own understanding but His...
Proverbs 3:5-6 says
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and
lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight."
Whether in this lifetime or when we stand before our Maker... God is true in bringing about what he started in us into completion. Lessons no matter how small or trivial can be used to be the foundation in which God lays something so much more awesome than we could ever hope to ask for or imagine into fruition.
Great post! I never would've thought of it that way from watching the coat-on, coat-off scene. That scene just annoyed me when i watch it but now its going to have a whole different meaning next time I watch. :)
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