#32 - Slaying Dragons in Our Lives {Reflections}

What is up?

Everybody, my name is Ryan and I'm here in the studio, mike's Beats Laboratory, and Mike is mic'd up today.

What's up, mike?

Mike's Beats Laboratory and Mike is mic'd up today.

What's up, mike?

Not much, I'm mic'd up.

We got him on mic.

Finally.

You can hear him Other than this faint echo from the Netherlands of the office.

He has got a mic.

But anyway, hey, welcome back to another episode of Reflections, our podcast, where we just sort of dive into briefly, ever so briefly, some topics that are interesting to me or to us, or I don't know, in pop culture, that are fun to talk about, which brings me, of course, to the topic of today that I want to talk about is dragons.

I love dragons.

Dragons are these mythical creatures.

I might do two episodes on dragons, which is crazy.

I didn't plan on this.

But dragons live forever, they breathe fire, they fly, they're terrifying, but they are used in ancient myths I mean, the world round, I would imagine.

But they're, I mean they're used, they're ubiquitous in these ancient myths, even modern myths, which are really basically retellings, stories that are from, you know, from ancient myths.

But and anyway, I read this kid's book, very short, brief, I can't even remember what it's called.

I use it, believe it or not, in my pre-marriage counseling with couples, soon-to-be couples.

Here's the story One morning this little boy wakes up and there's a small dragon in his bed.

He's like yo, a dragon.

This is crazy.

What am I going to do with this dragon?

He starts petting the dragon dragon and he brings it downstairs.

He's like mom, look, there's a dragon.

I found a dragon in my bed.

And the mom overlooks the dragon and says to the boy oh honey, that's very cute, but dragons don't exist.

And he's like mom, what are you talking about?

It's right here.

Here's the dragon, check it out.

She's like honey, that's not really a dragon.

They don't exist.

So you're just imagining it.

You've conjured up this image.

It's not really a dragon at all.

So they don't exist.

And the boy goes oh, okay, well, I was going to feed at breakfast, but I guess I won't now because they don't exist.

And all the while the dragon is just standing there.

Well, the kid goes about his morning, he has breakfast, the dragon kind of follows him around, and then he's getting ready for school and the mom is getting ready for her day.

The dad is there getting ready for work.

He's getting a suit and tie on the brother or the sister and the dog's running around and there's this dragon following this little boy around and ever so slightly, as you turn the pages, the dragon gets a little bit bigger every turn of the page.

Then the kid's done with school, he leaves to go to school, the mom's at home, she's sort of working from the home and you know, cleaning the house that day.

The dad goes off to his work, probably to some business somewhere in a car, and then the mom's at home, like cleaning the house around the dragon, all the while maintaining the dragons don't exist.

So she's vacuuming around the dragon, lifting.

At one point she lifts the tail of the dragon to vacuum under the tail of the dragon.

It's wild all the while like no, they don't exist, they're not real, this is all imaginary and just like kind of goes around the whole dragon the whole day.

Meanwhile, the dragon again, with every turn of the page it's bigger and bigger and bigger and everything she does has to now function and revolve around this giant, ever-growing dragon that's in the middle of the house that she's ignoring because she doesn't think that it exists.

Lo and behold, at one point it's so big it's encompassing the whole house, the interior, if you can imagine this giant dragon with a house around it.

And then the kids start coming home from school.

The dad comes home from work and this dragon is so big like actually it like stands up.

When it stands up inside the house, it lifts the entire house up off its foundation.

All the while the mom is like these don't exist at all.

Then the dog barks, scares the dragon, and at the same time the dad's pulling up from work, kids coming home from school, dog barks and the dragon gets scared and just takes off running down the street.

So you can imagine in this kid's book there's this giant dragon, a house on its back, like a shell, running down the street.

Everyone's chasing it.

The mom's in the window screaming help, help, and the kid's like running after this house, the dad too and they all.

Finally they catch up with the dragon in the house like five blocks down the road and they're like what is going on?

And the mom's like I have no idea.

And the kid's like I know it's the dragon.

The dragon is to blame here.

I can't believe it.

Look how big it got, the dragon.

This is unbelievable.

And the mom still says buddy, there's no such thing as dragons.

They don't exist.

Which is bizarre and unbelievable at this point in the story, because the dragon has demolished the house.

And the kid goes they do exist, they do.

It's right there, mom, you have to acknowledge the dragon.

Look how big it is.

It's destroyed the house and finally she relents and she's like okay, fine, fine, it's the dragon.

It's finally the dragon, fine.

And as she acknowledges the dragon, the dragon gets a little bit smaller and and a bit smaller and a bit smaller and finally it's like a little bit small, like the size of a dog yet again.

And they're all talking about this dragon, like God, this is crazy, it does exist.

Here it is.

And then the kid goes man, I can handle a dragon this size.

It's about the size of a small dog.

Again, and he goes I can handle dragons this big, but not those giant ones.

Those have, you know, those wrecked the house.

And the mom's like, yeah, wreck the house.

And the mom's like, yeah, I think it just wanted to be noticed.

And that's the end of the story.

And I love this story and I tell it to couples because I say to them, I say listen, and so I tell them the story.

At this point they're like what are you talking about, if they haven't kind of picked up on the sort of the idea yet.

But I say, listen, every relationship and in everyone's life you have these dragons, these, and they usually begin small and in the relationship it's like a small thing that happens between two people or in an organization or whatever the case might be.

It's like an offense or a rift or, uh, you know a sigh or you know a rolling of the eyes that there's this dragon, or they're often called snakes too.

It's a problem, you know.

It's like when your engine light comes on in your car.

It's like that's a dragon, small dragon, and you better check on it, you better acknowledge it and talk about it and say, hey, what, what happened there?

What was that?

Hey, why'd you roll your eyes at me?

Or hey, you offended me when you left the toothpaste cap off the toothpaste or whatever, when you left your dishes on the counter.

That bothered me.

Or what do you mean?

We can't go to my family for Christmas.

You know these kinds that might be a bigger dragon, but it's this small problem.

And the thing is, when they're that small, when your check engine light comes on.

At that point, if you get under the hood and look, it might not be an expensive fix.

It might just be hey, you got to change the oil, maybe you got to replace the blinker fluid, just kidding, whatever the case is.

Or hey, just put the toothpaste cap on at night.

Or hey, start putting your dishes in the dishwasher.

Not a big deal, but if you ignore them, they will get bigger and one day, before you know it, 10 years, 15 years down the road, you'll come home and your house will be demolished.

And here's the deal.

We all have them in our own lives, things in our own lives that are lurking just beneath the surface.

And many times we're afraid to check under the hood when the engine light comes on, because we're so terrified.

It'll be like the engine will blow up or it'll be some catastrophic problem.

But the irony is that if you don't check under the hood and look, or talk about the problem or address that little sigh that your partner gave you or that your neighbor, whatever If you don't check under the hood and look, then it will be a big problem.

It might in the beginning only be a small problem, but if you wait, it definitely will grow into a huge dragon and those are much more difficult to deal with and they will destroy your home on many occasions.

So here's my invitation today hey, whatever it is that's lurking beneath the hood of your own engine, be honest about it and acknowledge it.

Tell somebody about it, because when they're small these internal issues, whether it's, I don't know tendencies to do certain things, to wander off the path in these religious circles, we call this sin or predispositions, whatever.

Fine, but you got to talk about it with somebody and address it and be honest about it and acknowledge it, because then it can stay small and you can deal with it and you can manage it.

And if not, it'll get bigger and it can really wreck your life and in a relationship, a marriage, a friendship, a family system, these elephants in the room, these dragons, if you don't acknowledge them, they can get huge and then they're a problem.

So talk about them and acknowledge them and work through them together.

Better do it now, before that thing gets too big.

Okay, peace and fire.

Everyone Love you.

Talk to you soon, hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg Peace.