from a beetle to a warrior

I recently got my 5 year-old son interested in Transformers. And boy is he now interested in them. He has Transformers underwear (to which he proclaimed in church one fine morning: "I'm wearing underwear that has daddy's toys on them!), a Transformer backpack, a Transformers lunch box and a Transformers folder for school. He has Transformers PJs and Transformer toys. I've also introduced him to The Hub's Transformers Prime. His favorite character? Bumblebee.

And then I think I blew his mind.

I showed him the old Transformers cartoon show from the 80's. His first question: "Where's Bumblebee?" I pointed to the old VW beetle Bumblebee "There he is." I said as a proud parent. My son's first response: "No he's not." He couldn't understand that this Bumblebee was different than the one he knew. This weird, small, talking un-cool-car Bumblebee was, well, Bumblebee.

Things have changed in the last 25 years. The Old Bumblebee was a wisecracking friend of Spike who was faithful and true but also a VeeDub Bug. He also lacked confidence and his first response was to always whisk Spike and the other humans off to safety.

The new Bumblebee is different. He can't talk (his voice processing unit malfunctioned and Ratchet can't fix him with the primitive tools we have on Earth.) Only his friends and fellow fighters can understand him.

He's also a warrior and a scout. He's a fighter. He's a tough-kick-but-take-name's-later fighter. He is confident and is willing to head into battle even when he's had his knees broke. To tell the truth, I wouldn't want to be on the business end of him any day. No way. No how.

One thing Bumblebee now and Bumblebee then do have in common is that they are faithful and loyal. He is loyal to his friends, he faithful to Optimus Prime.

To be honest, Bumblebee has grown up. He is now a warrior. He is truly a relfection on what it means to be a dude now a days. Strong, loyal, faithful to friends, willing to fight but is only understood by those who know him and fight beside him. Other than that, he's alone.

It's hard to be a guy today. We're supposed to be strong yet sensitive, rugged yet metro, work hard yet be supportive, a nice guy but also a bad boy. We're supposed to be neutered warriors without anyone to fight.

We need a battle to fight. And if we don't have a good solid reason to fight a battle, then we fight for no reason.

I choose to fight. I choose to fight for God. To be a prayer warrior. To stand firm against hatred, lack of grace, abuse, pain and otherwise un-niceness. And I want to teach my son to do the same.

How can you be a warrior fighting the good fight?