Pour Your Heart Out Wednesday-Karate Kid

One of the things on my Summer Bucket list was to take my girls to see Karate Kid. On Saturday night, our entire family, (including grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and 1 college aged cousin and her friend), went to see the Karate Kid! What a treat! I remember going to the movies to see the original Karate Kid 26 years ago and it was great to watch my girls experience the 2010 Karate Kid.

As we all know, the Karate Kid is the classic underdog story. Jaden Smith played the main character just as Ralph Macchio did long ago. Jackie Chan starred as the Kung Fu Master living as a maintenance man, Mr. Hung, in the updated version. In the original film, Pat Morita played the loveable maintenance man, Mr. Miyagi. Although several critics have said that the new “Karate Kid” is way too long and lacks the humor of the first film, I really enjoyed it!

After working with eighth grade girls at my church, I have quickly learned that the humor from my childhood DOES NOT EXSIST for these girls. So the lack of humor may have been on point and totally realistic for today’s youth. In 1984, school was fun. Now, kids are expected to perform 2-3 grade levels above where they are. The youth of today, have access to so much—cell phones, my space, facebook, texting. When I was young, I did not have a cell phone and nobody I knew had one either! When someone wanted to call me, they had to call my home phone (aghast!). That usually meant that my Mom or Dad answered the phone! So, they KNEW who I was talking to and they would so politely clear their throat at 9pm to let me know that phone time was officially OVER! A 14 year old girl in our town committed suicide this year after she received harassing text messages from “friends”. This IS a different time.

So, without the classic humor from the first film, and not as many classic one liners, the 2010 Karate Kid still portrayed a message. When Mr. Hung (Jackie Chan), is teaching Jaden (Dre Parker), how to practice Kung Fu, he has him repeatedly put his jacket on and take it off—“wax on, wax off”. When Dre has finally had enough, Mr. Hung shows him how what he has been learning really IS Kung Fu. I just loved it when he said “Kung Fu is everything, it is how you put on the jacket, how you take off the jacket, it is how you treat people”. WOW!

Isn’t that a wonderful lesson for our children and for us? Your life will have ups and downs but it is essentially how you go about your day to day mundane tasks AND how you treat people that makes the difference.

1 Corinthians 9:19-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.