Kung Fu Panda 3

Kung Fu Panda 3 is a very special movie to me.

I watched it at the beginning of my new season as a music teacher. As I mentioned before, this isn't my first teaching stint. It is just that my current job is a lot harder than my previous teaching jobs in the sense of teacher development (which includes audits and exams), time management (loads of juggling between family and work), self-consciousness, and scope. I had severe self-doubts at first. Divine intervention came in the therapeutic form of Kung Fu Panda 3.

I watched KFP3 with Ben the very first time. We loved it. It was more entertaining than anything. The second time I watched it, it spoke afresh to me. I was on a bus returning from the national Electone Festival in KL - having watched many talented youths (as young as 8) display their skills and creativity through their musical compositions for the Electone. (They were amazing!) Behind each participant was, of course, a good, devoted, and sacrificial teacher. Naturally, I was bogged down by a question throughout the Festival: what if I was never good enough to be a music teacher? What if those who had affirmed me were wrong? What if I turned out to be a failure? Why had my mentor/teacher taken me on board with so much faith when she knew so little about me and my abilities? (She's an amazing musician herself.) What if I let her down? For some reason that night, the movie stopped right at the part where Shifu was trying to encourage self-doubting Po to be the teacher Shifu believed he (Po) was to be.

Po: Whoa! What was that? (Shifu made a flower bloom by the power of chi.)

Shifu: That was chi.

Po: What is chi?

Shifu: The energy that flows through all living things.

Po: So you're saying if I teach, I'll be able to do cool stuff like that?

Shifu: No, I'm saying if you teach, I'll be able to do cool stuff like that.

Po: Oh...

Shifu: Mastering chi requires mastering of self. Oogway sat alone in a cave for 30 years asking one question, "Who am I?" Who am I? I'm lucky if I get 5 minutes before you interrupt...

Po: Aw... so now I'll have to sit alone in a cave for 30 years?

Shifu: Eventually, after you master teaching.

Po: Teaching? There's no way I'm ever gonna be like you.

Shifu: I'm not trying to turn you into me; I'm trying to turn you into you.

I could really relate to Po. Today, my "Shifu" continues to work on turning me into me - something that I am very grateful for. KFP3 turned out to be rather prophetic after all. 

After years of processing the calling God has impressed upon my heart in 2004, i.e. to walk the road unconventional to most of my classmates in med school, I have experienced enough to know that God confirms His calling by surrounding the individual with favour whenever he/she decides to be obedient and goes wherever he/she is led. Throughout the journey home that night, I couldn't help feeling that God's favour for me is in the school He has led me to teach at for the season - for reasons unknown. Today, I certainly cannot deny it.