Wax On, Wax Off

I know it seems like I am really into movies involving martial arts but generally some good metaphors come out of these movies. I wonder do you remember a movie called "The Karate Kid". (the orginial one with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morito) The main chacter was "Daniel" or "Daniel-son" who was the pupil of an immigrant from Okinawa named Mr. Miyagi. Daniel so desperatly wanted to learn martial arts in order to defend himself and prove he was tough (self) but Mr.Miyagi wanted to enrinch his mind and heart so he had a different plan. In the first movie Mr.Miyagi would have Daniel perform tasks like painting his fence, waxing his car, washing the windows. Mr.Miyagi's most classic when teaching him the way he wanted to perform these tasks was "Wax on, Wax off". As one would expect Daniel grew impatient because it seemed like every day it was the same thing, there was no actual "moves" being taught. Daniel began to grow angry and think Mr.Miyagi was a joke and finally Mr. Miyagi reminded of when he taught him to paint the fence, he kicked at Daniel and by reflex daniel blocked the kick. The motion of painting the fence was teaching him to have correct technique, when he threw a punch the motion of cleaning the windows taught Daniel to deflect the punch. The lesson happened repeatdly to ensure that Daniel was learning from it what Mr.Miyagi wanted him to learn.
         When God has made up in his mind that he wants you to learn a lesson, he will like Mr. Miyagi give you a series of lessons designed to teach you the skill NEEDED(pay attention to that word) to learn. You come to him and you say " I want to be better" so he makes you better he just uses his own tactics because he knows they are sure to work. Like Daniel you began to feel like a servant boy, as if your doing things that serve no purpose or perhaps why do I constantly have to go through this. Until you see the lesson being taught you will never learn and move on. It's so hard for you because you won't sit down and learn, God isnt putting too much on you its just your flesh not wanting to move out of the way. My biggest problem is getting too frustrated too easily. I'll get so frustrated I am unreasonable and even harder to reason with, so my first thing is to blame the thing that is frustrating me not asking myself "why is this frustrating me?" James 1:14 clears this all the way up "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."So it's not the situation its really ME! I found that my anger comes from my own selfish desire in other words what I wanted, or because I didnt like how something turned out. Refusal to learn to the lesson of how to control my anger keeps me in a perpetual learning cycle of dealing with situations where I am forced to control or Im forever taking the same text. We often forget that the lesson is to get you where God wants you to be, in order to do that somethings have to go. So yes you will find yourself like Daniel in this movie doing the same thing over and over until you get the lesson. Picture it like this learning this lesson could be the pathway to a better job, better marriage/relationship, better life. 90 % of the time its yourself that makes it so much harder for you. When you won't yield to God's plan your plan conflicts with his drastically so the friction you feel is his plan working against yours. Refusal to yield makes him repeat the lesson over and over and over. 2 step process, Teaches the lesson ( his statues found in his word), applies the lesson (the test or experiences that try you.) This part is personal because it is just you and God, family, friends merely can pray but you and God have to work this out together. When you finally grab ahold of the lesson and past the test like Daniel-son you are ready to move to the next thing. Ask yourself this question if you need "What am I not seeing that you want me to see Lord?" I promise you wont have to look hard it will be clear. God Bless Beloved...and thanks for reading.