The sign reads, “Paint House. Not like fence. No up, down.
Paint house side to side. (1/2
right hand, 1/2 left hand.)” Remember
the movie? Of course you do. All of us “children of the ‘80’s” remember
“The Karate Kid.” I caught part of this
movie the other night and realized something I’d never thought about before.
Tucked away in the middle of this motion picture is a great Biblical truth.
Now, for those of you who may have
forgotten, after Mr. Miyagi rescues Daniel from the Cobra’s, he promises to
teach him karate if Daniel promises to do exactly as he instructs with no
questions. Well, Daniel spends the next
several days waxing cars, painting fences, and sanding floors. After spending all day painting the guy’s
house, while his instructor is off fishing, Daniel is pretty ticked. “Did you ever think I might have wanted to go
fishing, too?” Daniel asks. “You not
here when I leave,” Mr. Miyagi says.
Daniel says, “I thought I was gonna learn karate.” “You learn plenty,” says Mr. Miyagi.” Daniel has had enough waxing, painting and
sanding and announces, “I’m going home!”
This is the
turning point of the movie; where the rubber meets the road. Mr. Miyagi says, “Daniel-son show me wax on,
wax off.” Over the next couple of minutes
those boring or repetitive “household chore”- type arm motions are transformed
into karate blocks by the Master. At the
end of this brief training session, Mr. Miyagi throws a flurry of punches and
kicks, and Daniel blocks every one! He
walks away amazed at his own accomplishments.
In the book of
James, Chapter 1, verses 2 through 6, it is written: “Consider it pure joy, my
brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature
and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask
God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is
like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
So many times
we ask God, “Why”? Why am I going
through all this? Well, here’s our
answer. We’re in training! God is preparing us for the trials that are
going to come later. God may allow us to
go through a thunderstorm at age twenty-eight to prepared us for the hurricane
that will hit at age fifty-three. As the
verses say, these trials are developing our perseverance (or patience) so that
we can be mature and complete. The
verses also say that God is not stingy with his wisdom and will give it generously
to those who ask believing. In other
words, He’ll help us to understand the answers to those “why” questions.
There’s another reason we get to go through troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:4 says, “He comforts us in
all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort
we ourselves have received from God.”
It’s all about perspective. It’s
all about realizing that life is about way more than what you’re going through
right then and there. Even those
repetitive “household chore”-type things, like Bible study, prayer time, Sunday
school, and tithing are only a small part of a bigger picture.
So thank you, Daniel LaRusso. Thank you, Mr. Miyagi. Thank you for teaching us that “wax on, wax
off” is less about buffing cars to a shine and more about polishing us into the
gems God wants us to be.
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