A few nights ago I was laying out on the sofa of our apartment. Kelsey wasn't home from work yet, so I was flipping more or less mindlessly through the T.V. channels trying to tune out the thoughts I had been having throughout the day. Somehow, T.V. has a way of doing just that - tuning me out. Whether that's good or bad I don't yet pretend to know - but nonetheless there I was laid out on the couch.
Flipping through the channels, I stumbled across one of my favorite childhood movies: The Karate Kid. Watching it always holds out a sense of nostalgia for me - remembering back to the days where I'd practice the infamous 'Crane-Kick' or pretend I was training to take out those low-life Cobra-Kai scumbags! Good times ...
Anyways, as luck would have it, I caught my favorite scene and interestingly enough, instead of doing what I had hoped (tuning me out that is) it had got me to thinking about some things I probably wouldn't have otherwise thought. Of course, its that famous scene where Daniel and Mr. Miagi (I guess that's how you spell it ... ?) finally come to understand each other. Miagi had had Daniel performing all of his mundane chores throughout the week - waxing the car, sanding the floor, painting the fence and the house etc. etc. All the while, Miagi is out having all the fun. Finally, after having painted the whole house, Daniel finds Miagi coming home from a fishing trip laughing and singing without a care in the world. That was it, Daniel had had it. He finally confronts Miagi with all his anger and unloads all his frustrations on him.
And this is my favorite part, in all his Oriental mystique, Miagi mutters: "Daniel-san, not everything is as seem!" Confused, Daniel walks away angry but Miagi continues the lesson. "Daniel-san! Come here! Show me sand the floor." - don't lie, I know you said that in your head with the accent. I know how it is.
"Sand the floor!"
So Daniel starts doing the motions for each mundane chore Miagi had had him do throughout the week - from wax the car to paint the house - and wouldn't you know, to Daniel's surprise, Miagi had been secretly teaching him defensive Karate the whole time. At the end, it all comes together. Miagi attacks Daniel and to his surprise, Daniel defends each and every advance of Miagi's. He had learned Karate, without even knowing that he was being taught. Awesome! I love his face at the end; the perfect mix of confusion and amazement. Great scene ...
So I think about this. I couldn't explain at the time what was tugging at me - but I dwell on the scene. It spoke to me as an adult in some new way, as strange as that may sound. What was it? What was this scene poking at that got me to wondering?
I think finally, I've come to make some sense of it all - what it was that spoke to me. I think with age, we all come to accept in new unfortunate ways that the world is not as it should be; that there are things before us that not only do not make sense, but challenge as well any sense of order or meaning in the life we go about living. Things so terrible and so hopeless as to bring one to their knees and wonder in the mess of it all whether or not there is anything but the darkness for us here.
I also think that we all find different ways of coping with this fear - either we join the darkness and let it run wild within us, or we hold on to the hope that there is something in the meaninglessness that holds some meaning; that perhaps there is something or someone who can put things back together for us again. And, while I'm sure we've all played a little at both these options, I am convinced that though this world is dark and empty, there is the Sunday morning resurrection hope of a man named Jesus Christ; who opens up for us a new door through the painful bearing of the cross. That this one, barred shut by the dark, unconquered stone of death, bursts forth in victory and opens up fresh new possibilities for His humankind. Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. And in believing in Jesus Christ I therefore believe that He is making all things new. I believe that the randomness and seeming meaningless is, and will be, set straight and that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will one day rise here amongst us and confirm in us that which we all long to be true: that in the end, it all comes together.
This is why I think this scene spoke fresh to me and why I think others see it and get a smile on their face. To some it may seem a naive thought, a coping mechanism - and if it were not for Christ, I would join them in saying it were - but I believe in Jesus Christ and therefore have faith to hope. May God's spirit embolden you to join me in that hope.
"Behold, I make all things new"
- Revelation 21:5 -
//ExProfundis//
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