Wallace Smith :: Blog :: Today is the Present

We took our girls to see "Kung Fu Panda" and we enjoyed it immensley.  The animation was great!  What I didn't expect was to connect with the movie so much.  I had previously said before going was "I think I saw that movie the first time, when it was called 'Beverly Hills Ninja' (starring the late Chris Farley)..."  I went in ready for summer popcorn fare, and I was pleased to be surprised.

There were several lines in the movie that stood out to me, most from the wise and toothless turtle master, Oogway (of course I know turtles are toothless, but this guy was really toothless--drawn to look really old...).  One of the lines was: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that is why it is called the present."  I'm sure the writers of the script borrowed that Moment of Zen from somewhere else, but the old turtle said it, and so I'm giving Oogway the credit as the source of those words.  I resonated with those words, especially in our present situation of figuring out how to plant and grow a church from the DNA up; our comfort and security of "yesterday" is now an unseen shore, our destination "tomorrow" is unknown, and "today" we are floating, trusting, navigating, by the gifts of God's spirit and dependent on the graciousness of strangers.  But the gift of today is what we do with the opportunity; how we live this day is a gift to God, to others and to ourselves.

Without giving away the deep secrets of the saga of the Kung Fu Panda, there is one other line that stuck out: "You are the Secret."  (Watch the movie to find out more).  But it made me think about Jesus' words when he sent out the disciples the very first time on their own to preach and heal (see Matthew 10 and Luke 9 for the story).  Jesus said, in essence: "Take nothing for your journey; no money, no extra tunic, or sandals, or staff.  Travel light."  Eugene Peterson's The Message says it this way: "You don't need any extra equipment.  You are the equipment."  The turtle Oogway might say, "You are the secret.  the secret ingredient."  In other words, we already have what we need to accomplish what God desires of us as disciples of Jesus--just as we are, we can preach and heal and proclaim God's grace and glory.  Just as we are, broken and imperfect and seeking and weak and small.  We are enough, just as we are, today, to be God's gift of love to others and to offer ourselves as a gift to God.  There it is, folks, your Moment of Zen.  LIVE THE GIFT!!