Recently I indulged in some escapist entertainment by watching the original 1984 movie The Karate Kid.  Some of you might remember seeing this movie in the theater; others grew up watching reruns of it on cable TV.

Daniel LaRusso is a teen boy who moves from New Jersey to California with his mother. She had the promise of a job in the land of palm trees. While she seems to adjust to her new job quite easily, her son hasn’t had an easy time at all.

During one particularly poignant scene, Daniel is yelling about how much he hates it in their new home state, and he’s obviously upset. His mom is telling him, “I want to understand. How can I help?” and he says, “I don’t understand the rules here.”

Wow. Talk about an “aha” moment! I know that feeling. Don’t you? I’ve felt it as a girl, as a teen, as a young woman, even as a pastor’s wife and military wife.

I don’t understand the rules.

Of course, as the movie’s story goes, Mr. Miyagi overhears this meltdown and befriends Daniel, eventually rescuing him from a brutal beating and teaching him karate. While Mr. Miyagi’s methods have been made fun of throughout the past twenty-six years, the first thing he asks Daniel to do is wash and wax his classic automobiles. He has to “wax on” with his right hand in a circle, and “wax off” with his left hand in a circle. Mr. Miyagi is very specific about that, and while Daniel eventually gets angry about the plethora of chores he’s doing around Mr. Miyagi’s garden, he learns the muscle movements he will need to compete at the karate tournament.

While I’m sure there are more profound analogies out there, or even expositions on the zen of karate or Miyagi-isms, I’d like to hone in on the idea of “wax on, wax off.”

How often do we think we are going to do something a certain way, only to be told we must do it another? Hopefully you don’t have to think really hard about it. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is our recent move. Not everything went according to plan, and the way we thought we were going to wax the car was not the ”wax on, wax off” that ended up happening.

I believe our awesome God works in us and through us so often through the things we experience. He hones and refines us, as in Isaiah 48:10, which says

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; 
       I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

He’s going to test us. Can we “wax on, wax off” as He directs, or are we doing it any old way we want?

For my part, I feel like I’m being refined during this transitional time, where we’re not home in North Dakota, and not yet at home in Texas, but are living in my in-laws’ home in Missouri. I don’t always understand the rules anywhere I am, but that’s ok. I have God, and I’m learning to “wax on, wax off,” to be the woman He wants me to be.

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