Being called to something great is a really daunting thing.
You may not even know where to start or what success even looks like.
Maybe you are so nervous that you actually decide to run away from your calling.
But what if you decided to walk on your path to your purpose?
Well in today's episode we are looking at the main character of Avatar the Last Airbender
himself to see how his journey actually mimics ours.
And that is Avatar Aang.
What's going on guys my name is Nate and you are listening to the Otaku Liberation.
A show where we help you break the chains that hold you back your life by connecting
biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado let's get right on into it.
So the verse I want to cover today that pretty much sums up this entire thing is Jeremiah
chapter 1 verse 5.
It says before I formed you in the womb I knew you.
Before you were born I set you apart.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
And that doesn't describe how the Avatar is and I don't know what does.
Because they are literally set apart and are appointed to actually not necessarily profit
but to guide the world and the nations.
And that still remains true for Avatar Aang himself.
And Aang's journey is one is a tragic one let's be honest and two it's an interesting
one for me looking at it because this is the oldest child I've ever seen.
Yes he's even older than Grogu because Aang is technically 112 years old and if that sounds
crazy to you then you need to go watch the show I'm not even going to explain it no I'm
kidding.
But Aang's whole journey from him learning he's the Avatar to the end of the series and
even beyond into the comics and things that lead up to Korra which is the show after his
death really just it really just depicts how I know how I would react especially at such
a young age someone telling me that I'm responsible for the whole world and the lives of thousands
if not millions of people and just and not only that just to know how to fight this crazy
battle before I'm even ready it's mind-boggling for me in the way that he handled it parts
of it is you know okay he's a monk so then his spirituality and things like that his
thinking process is a little bit better than the average 12 year old but on the other side
he's still 12 years old and he handles things like a 12 year old so it's kind of funny but
it is really humanizing to see a character like that who's not just on one end crying
complaining about it the whole time just say oh no why is this happening to me but on the
other hand being so gung-ho about it and they're just the best at everything you know hangs
very much in the middle and his whole journey is just it's a fun fun ride so Aang's journey
kind of it comes as three three phases or stages however you want to you know describe
it that I think very much mimics ours when God tells us of our purpose and the first
stage is actually reluctance and it starts so I should start back when Aang was born
so since since birth Aang is was a talented and a powerful bender even even I think even
beyond just normal avatar standards think all of them have an innate talent but Aang
they actually straight-up said he was a talented and powerful bender and the monks the monks
that actually raised him they knew he was the avatar when he selected four relics from
thousands of toys to play with which are known as the avatar relics that they're just passed
between the nations and that the avatar themselves always pick because it's familiar to them
and that's just kind of maybe said you know God knows the purpose of our of our life even
before we are created this is our all this stuff is already set in motion way before
we're even here and the same thing goes for the avatar and in these little relics right
these these have already been established they're already here long before it was decided
that Aang was gonna be the avatar he already knew the steps he needed to take and like
I said before normally the avatar is told about their status around the age of 16 but
due to the signs of the coming war the monks told Aang about his destiny and his purpose
as the avatar when he was just 12 and his just think as 12 year old being told that
again that you're responsible for the whole world it's crazy but oftentimes God will call
on us not when we're ready but when we're needed and it may not even be in that moment
but he wants us to start preparing and that just that piece right there just hits it's
so home it's so home because you know even before I started doing you know this stuff
with the podcast were really going in deep with my faith I was always into personal development
and things like that and one thing I've always just read and heard is that you need to start
before you're ready because you're never gonna be ready to start it is pretty much what the
whole thing is and that's just true that's the fact of life in order to get somewhere
in order to go further than where you are now you have to start before you're ready
because think about it if like if my goal in life is to you know be a Hollywood actor
be a millionaire or whatever the case may be the current version of me isn't that so
if I'm if I'm just waiting until I become like that to start then it's just never gonna
happen because that's not how I am right now that any type of change that you want to make
it comes in a gradual pace but the key to that is you have to start nothing is gonna
change unless you do and honestly just when I was when I was rewatching the show just
reading up on Aang again for this episode and just understanding that yeah he was called
to his purpose way before he was even ready you know not just from an age thing but like
from a mentality standpoint he was not he was not feeling it and I just think how many
times have I personally reacted like that when God's told me hey this is the next step
I want you to take and I'm just like no we're not doing that I'm not feeling it right now
and just to kind of put the thing in perspective it's just he does that on purpose God does
that on purpose he wants us to be uncomfortable to really kind of go through it not in no
not in a malicious way but because honestly friction and tension is what causes you to
grow I mean that by a lot of this what happens just while you work out and you hurt yourself
listening to big weights in your sore the days after the soreness is actually a sign
that your muscles are growing and is the same thing spiritually we're spiritually sore when
God calls us to something that we're not ready for but he says hey buckle up because it's
coming and so Aang initially resists this idea that he's the avatar and instead he just
wants to live a normal life I mean can you blame him this kid's 12 he's like I just want
to hang out with my friends not save the world and honestly this even persists after he accepts
his duties after he gets to the point where he is okay he acknowledges and accepts the
fact that he's the avatar he still has the ultimate goal of just trying to live a normal
life that he can you know as normal of a life as he can and which is which is hard and honestly
I dare say impossible but hey we all we all want what we want and the Aang's resistance
got to the point that he actually ran away he ran away from the from the air temple he's
being raised at because he was so stressed out and confused as to why his life was changing
so drastically and when God calls on us it's natural to want to run away when God calls
on us to leave our comfort zones to leave what we've been knowing and to something greater
or just better you may not see it as as greater or better in that moment we just see it as
God you're disrupting my flow you know this is not this is not okay I don't like change
and so it's natural for us to want to run away and we want to continue to be comfortable
and to just stay content to where we are and that mean same thing with Aang but let me
ask you this question because this is a question that came to me way back before I started
this podcast way before I started the YouTube channel way before I even decided to do any
of the stuff and it's how many lives would be affected if we ran away from what we're
called to do let you sit with that for a minute how many lives will be affected if you decided
to run away from what you were called to do and I'm not talking about saving the world
from this crazy tyrant you know that was Aang's duty but for you what is it that you feel
like God's spoken into your heart spoken what's that one thing that you have this crazy idea
this crazy you know business or whatever that you say you feel in your heart that you need
to do that you you want to use it's your passion what is it what is it and what would happen
if you decided to not follow that how would your life look how would the lives of the
countless people that you could have impacted look and in Aang's case it was literal death
like if he continued to run away from his past his destiny as the avatar countless lives
would have lost would have been lost like it just it would have been a wrap right and
that's not or it's not accounted for the lives that were already lost because he ran away
in the first place and so just kind of give you more context about Aang's running away
he ran away he ran away from the air temple he's being raised at and it was during a storm
a stormy day and the storm actually knocked him his bison Appa into the into the ocean
and on that he was almost dead just then in that moment he was just it was almost a wrap
and one reason why he didn't is because the avatars have this ability called the avatar
state which is more or less fight or flight and it kicked on to preserve his life and
what he did he froze himself in Appa and Appa into a giant block of ice and that's where
they stayed for a hundred years so while the war was going on you know while his entire
culture was essentially eradicated he was he was frozen and that's why it's called
the avatar the last airbender because he's literally the last airbender and that's just
that and then that's just a consequence of him running away from his destiny now we don't
know how it would have worked out if he would have stayed and trained he he to be fair he
probably just would have died with the rest of them because he wasn't ready but but we
we never know that we'll never know that so that was just the initial stage of Aang's
journey the reluctance so the next stage is actually the growth or just growing into your
purpose so after Aang wakes up from the iceberg you know with Katara and Sokka and they begin
their journey so he can master the the four elements Aang has to overcome many challenges
that ultimately make him a better person and a better avatar and some of the first challenges
were actually initially learning the other elements so when Aang was frozen he was already
a master airbender because in the Air Nomad culture well once you become a master airbender
you get these tattoos and you've seen any of the even you haven't watched the show I'm
sure you've seen many posters things like that he has his tattoos so at 12 years old
he's mastered airbending and so now he just needs to master the other elements to become
a fully realized avatar so he's ready to take on you know the Fire Lord things like that
but each of the other elements he has this initial resistance to a degree and with fire
he accidentally burns or you know his friend and love interests and that causes he see
the fear to be planted in his heart where he's just afraid to firebending he just refuses
to do it for the majority of the series with water water wasn't really a real issue for
him to learn and that you get the hang of quickly but he didn't take his training seriously
which caused his his learning to stagnate whereas when him and Katara they actually
started off learning at about the same pace and actually at the beginning he was a better
waterbender than her he started to fall behind because he just didn't take it seriously he
was always goofing off when he should have been training and then lastly was earth where
he actually has a mental block because the way the it works with the avatars since again
their own once they can learn all four elements they the element that has that is the natural
opposite to that avatar's personality is the one that's the hardest for them to learn
in any case he's an air nomad they're taught to be free and you know always redirect things
like that whereas the earth is like no you stand your ground and you take things head
on which is complete opposite of everything he's ever learned so it gave him some difficulties
another another dilemma he had was deciding on how he should end the war being should
he kill Ozai which is what everyone else me me included as the viewer were saying yeah
just kill him like you just be done with it or not because the monks always told me that
all life is sacred and you know you shouldn't just kill somebody just because you have a
difference in opinion which I will say that is true but Ozai was literally slaughtering
hundreds of people so I am you know whatever and and lastly I guess like I touched on before
was he was torn between his personal desires such as living a normal life and his actual
duty as the avatar which is ending ending the war and saving the entire world and each
of these obstacles challenged a in a way that forced him to grow forcing the wrong ways
that he wouldn't have if he never went on this journey in the first place and the way
it's tied back to us is that when we're going on a journey especially one where we've been
called to a higher purpose to our actual calling we're going to face things that our current
selves cannot handle at all but go through these things so that we'll be prepared when
we step into all the things that God has for us so the things you're going through in this
season is preparing you for the next season and then things go through in that season
it's gonna pray for the season after that and so on and so forth but they're all just
always gonna be challenges that's just a part of living part of being alive here and some
are gonna be easier to get through than others some are gonna be like ain't learning water
bending whereas like it's only hard because you're making it hard because you're not taking
the time to actually do what you need to do and some can just be like him learning earth
it's just so naturally your opposite that you are you don't even want to attempt it
you don't even want to try it and every time you do it's just super difficult but you have
to all right I mean that's that's it that's it you have to we have to go through these
things because again God's prepared for something for us on the other side but our current sales
can't can't handle it so we have to go through this process this you know this this type
of pressure right and I say you know diamonds and diamonds are made with a lot of pressure
and a lot of heat and I don't know about you but that sounds very uncomfortable and essentially
that's that's what it is and but the beauty of this whole thing about the journeys that
we go on is that you don't have to do it alone because Aang didn't do it alone he had what
they call you know the team avatar and and all the other allies that they've made along
the journey Aang was able to face his destiny with that much more confidence knowing that
he has people who are by his side who are willing to to help him in any way they can
whether that's fighting fighting directly training him or just just being just having
words of encouragement sometimes just having someone say you got this can make or break
your day and that's all you need to get on get over the get over the hump so surround
yourself with some trustworthy people who cheer you on who can lift you up when you're
running on empty and who can keep you focused when you start to slack off I think that's
probably the main thing at least for me is just sometimes it's like I don't want to do
this today and I gotta kick myself in the butt but if you can find someone who can do
it for you by all means keep them close and the last stage or phase of this journey Aang
goes on so again he went from being reluctant to growing in his journey to now he's finally
just accepted it acceptance accepting what it means to be the avatar and what his own
and what his duty means to the world so again that didn't really come full circle until
it was towards the ends of the series Aang finally comes to his own as a yes yes you
can say he was a full-fledged avatar you know I'm not gonna get into all the nerd details
about it but either way he he's a fully realized avatar he no longer runs away from his duties
and he actually takes it seriously enough to get the job done while he's still able
to actually enjoy his life and after he ends the war he still has avatar duties to do you
know again keep to keep the peace that he fought so established in the first place to
make sure the nations are all getting along together and then basically what happened
for the hundred last hundred years doesn't happen again but now he's able to actually
enjoy his life enjoy the fruits of his labor and actually not be so stressed and overworked
all the time that's something I personally strive for is being able to live out my purpose
while still enjoying my life and it that's gonna come at some point because I know right
now when we're following our purpose in the beginning it's gonna be a lot of grinding
a lot of late nights early mornings a lot of time where you just giving up you know
party time on the weekend or for more my case video games and watching anime for recreation
is giving up those things in the front so you can get you can actually enjoy yourself
right needs to get to the other side where you're you're established you don't have
to grind as much or as hard I mean you still grinding still the stuff done that you need
to get done but you can actually take the time to enjoy that's what I'm that's what
I'm going towards that's what I'm trying to get to and it is coming I know it's gonna
be little by little step by step and that's true for all of us right so if you feel like
you're just you being your head against the wall right now it's okay okay take a take
a moment take a breathe make sure you don't go insane cuz it kind of feeds the purpose
that guy has for us if we lose our minds on the way to trying to fulfill that purpose
right so he understands take a breathe you know breathe with me just we're all good everything's
okay nothing the world's not gonna end you know you don't have to fight the fire lord
it's okay but seriously when you get to that point where you can just have peace you know
right because honestly fulfilling your purpose just brings a peace then that can't be understood
it it when people they do what they love because it doesn't feel like work to them that's true
yeah that doesn't mean you don't have to take breaks every once in a while but while you're
doing these things it doesn't feel like you know it's not a drag you don't you're not
oh I gotta do it oh I gotta report record this podcast that oh I gotta film a YouTube
video later you know for me doesn't that's not how I'm feeling it's like okay I get to
do this you know eventually this is gonna change someone's life down the road and just
because I was being obedient and ultimately once we're walking in our purpose once we
come to accept our purpose it leads to a confidence in yourself because you have confidence in
the one who made you because once you once we know what our purpose is once we finally
accept the purpose and stop running away and you know trying to hide from God essentially
once we once we just we know we dig our heels in and say okay Lord following you this is
what we're gonna do and it brings that peace but it brings that confidence because you
know you can't really fail at this because God made you for this it's literally impossible
for you to fail but you have to be willing to put in the work and put in the time and
put in the effort that's the only caveat you said gotta be willing to do it it's all gonna
work out but you have to do it you have to do it you know you're right like you're saying
don't don't don't have me as I don't just put half the energy into it don't just pretend
to do it but actually go go all in and the rest is history so that's all I got for you
guys today if you like what you heard and you want to take a deeper look at today's
episode head on over to the otaku liberation net where you'll find a blog article that
covers today's episode in a little more detail and don't forget to come back next week because
we're gonna look at someone who funny enough was deemed as the mother and protector of
the whole group and was actually one of my favorite character for a long time and that
person is Katara all right guys always remember you are the main character of your story and
that story doesn't end until he said so all right people