Crouching Tiger, Hidden Wisdom

I grew up loving old, cheesy and unrealistic Kung-Fu movies. My brother and I would stay up late and burst with excitement as watched the action unfold. They were so lame, but so, SO GOOD!

There were always a few ingredients that we knew to expect:

1. Terrible Acting.
2. A story line that probably would not make sense.
3. An English overdub that would NEVER match up with the way the actors’ lips would move.
4. Tons of gruesome, unnecessary fight scenes (where the hero would take 50 people on, but they would all wait their turn to fight him one by one and were defeated with a single blow).
5. A wise, old, Kung-Fu Master that would train the hero and say some really profound thing about learning to live with honour and avoid fighting… Blah blah blah. (I hated this advice because I lived for the fight scenes.)

Proverbs 20:3 “It is honourable for a man to resolve a dispute, but any fool can get himself into a quarrel.”

Reading Proverbs 20:3, I can’t help but think that this is exactly the kind of thing that the Kung-Fu master would say. Something that sounds profound and wise, but something that I don’t want to hear, because there is no action, no proving your ability to fight or defend yourself.

In asking God to speak to me through this verse, I am deeply challenged. I so easily get myself into fights with my wife or quarrels with others because I am full of pride and want to be right OR I am deeply hurt and need to hurt back. It is so easy to say what I think, get upset, not care about their feelings or opinions and start a quarrel. The REALLY difficult thing, is to make it right with them.

I think we so often only see our side of the story or our own perspective that we don’t stop, and ask God to help us see what we are not seeing. It’s important that we ask our loving Father to humble us and show us where we have been wrong and how we can resolve this thing. Any fool can come into an argument with a 15 meter long running dragon kick and scream “Haaaaya!“, but a wise man resolves their disputes.

I want to be a man that admits that I am wrong, a man that considers others’ feelings, opinions and desires before sharing my own. I want to be like a wise old Kung-Fu master, able to kick some butt, but instead, chooses the way of wisdom, the way of humility, the way of forgiveness, the way of loving others and putting them above myself, the way of resolving conflicts, the way of Jesus.

Teach us to be like you Jesus. You did not approach us with clenched fists and a hard heart, you approached us with love, grace and mercy. The way to treat us when we REALLY don’t deserve it, help us be that way to others.

Resolve those conflicts. Ask Jesus to give you grace and show you how.