SOCIAL MEDIA

Friday, November 26, 2010

Dragon Warriors

Hope all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I count myself bountifully blessed in so many ways.

So, the kids have been watching "Kung Fu Panda" over the past couple of days on the DVR. We have all seen it before but it is totally worthy of repeats if you have never seen it, you have to.

I am sitting at the kitchen table this morning reading the mass scripture readings for the day while (embarrassed clearing of throat) watching "Kung Fu Panda" in the background and a somewhat profound revelation came to me. No pun intended, because the first reading was from the Book of Revelation. As I read " I, John, saw an angel come down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss..." (At this point as I am reading the wise Kung Fu master turtle, forgot his name, is about to pick out the "Dragon Warrior") hmm, I thought, coincidence? I think not!

I read on "I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had  accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years." (the panda gets chosen at this point, by fate, to be the "dragon warrior", he is fat, clumsy, apparently not talented, and a big disappointment to all the Kung Fu masters present. None of them believe he is the true "dragon warrior" because he is so...not dragon warrior material. The enemy he is supposed to fight, interestingly enough was a good student at first, but pride got in the way and turned him away from the good principles he first learned. Sounds alot like Lucifer himself, eh? The angel of light? Who fell from heaven due to his own pride and thinking he was hot stuff?  So these analogies just keep flowing in my mind (could this be construed as some sort of meditative prayer time? it could be a stretch...)

So here's the rest. We are like Po, the panda. God has called us all to a noble purpose. To do something great for Him, seriously, all of us are called to greatness in God, he has had the plan since the beginning, and we have only to discover it. But stuff gets in the way. Other people in our lives, unfortunately, don't believe it is true, and discourage us. In the movie, even the master who trains Po, the panda, doesn't believe in him at first, fortunately, our Master does! We ourselves don't believe it, or get so caught up in our own faults, mistakes, and idiosyncrasies, that we fail to see who we are in God, who he made us to be, "dragon warriors" all of us. It really doesn't matter if we are fat, clumsy, inexperienced or stupid, to put it bluntly. God has made saints and great people of all of the above. What matters is that you believe God can be great in you, and you let go and start to believe, and the dragon scroll takes affect. In the movie, there is this "dragon scroll" that all the Kung Fu masters see as a great source of power, Po gets it as he is the "dragon warrior" and is disappointed at first when he opens it and there is nothing there. Then he realizes that it's magic is in believing in yourself. Now, I have to say I have never been a big fan of the old "Believe in yourself!" motto in and of itself. I mean, I can't do much of anything apart from God, and if I try I am seriously disappointed. But with God living in me, I have seen a great deal of good take place when I let go and let God, so to speak.

Ok, so anyway, when Po finally believes he is the "dragon warrior" he starts doing all these amazing things without even knowing what he is doing, eventually defeating the enemy. Did you know there are saints who could bilocate? They could be in 2 places at once, ministering to people on different parts of the world? There were saints that could communicate with animals, heal people, bring people back to life, multiply food, levitate (aka, flying during prayer). I'd say these suspiciously look alot like Kung Fu powers to me. Could we do such things? I dare to say yes. Jesus said we would do the things he did and greater. So, buck up dragon warriors. Live up to your potential. I am going to go put my 3 year old down for a nap myself. You have to start small you know. 



  

2 comments :

  1. We *love* viewing Kung Fu Panda through DJM lenses! "Nightmare Before Christmas" is another great movie about finding, rejecting, then embracing your plan of life.
    Love it! I wonder if Hollywood knows it's sometimes being used by the Divine?

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  2. What an inspiring post, Virg. It really builds my faith. And yes, putting down a 3-year-old is pretty harrowing in its own right.

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