Now that Cobra Kai is on Netflix, I know a bunch of us have taken the deep dive into the world of Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso and their new generation of karate students.
If you haven’t, then you need to know that Cobra Kai is a TV-sequel to the original Karate Kid film franchise. It picks up in the present day, when JOhnny and Daniel-san are middle-aged men who still haven’t gotten over the events of the All-Valley tournament more than two decades ago.
Cobra Kai isn’t a good show. It’s cheesy, melodramatic and awkward. But it’s so much fun. I love it. It’s not good, but it’s awesome.
And, as you might expect, it’s got tons of karate. Like, so. Much. Karate.
Probably the most iconic moment from the original Karate Kid is Daniel’s training. Paint the fence. And, of course, wax on, wax off.
We only learn later in the film that Mr. Miyagi designed his chores to teach Daniel muscle memory. So that he doesn’t have to think about what to do with his hands and feet – he can focus on the fight.
Cobra Kai brings back the chores – with plenty of self-aware jokes about car wax. But the show also preserves the life-lessons aspect Karate Kid. After all – the film wasn’t really about karate. It was about the kid learning to become an adult. (And part of the fun of the show is seeing that both Johnny and Daniel are still, in some ways, man-children who remember that the very best thing about karate was never the punches, kicks or leg sweeps. It was learning how to be an adult.
They learned from senseis -from Mr. Miyagi, in Daniel’s case. Not from a textbook, but from living with Mr. Miyagi. What they learned, in Biblical terms, was Wisdom.
Today, we’re going to explore the reality that the Bible is not a manual for how to live. We can’t find answers for every question we encounter.
