Have you ever hit a point where you feel like you’ve got nothing left to offer — like your best days are already behind you? In this episode, Dallas looks at Johnny Cage’s arc in Mortal Kombat 2 and what it has to say about finding your purpose when you feel completely out of place.

---

BLOG VERSION

Ephesians 2:10 — “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

---

Mortal Kombat 2 could honestly be described as the story of the return of Johnny Cage. But this isn’t the Johnny Cage you know from the video games. Yeah, he’s still kind of a jerk and full of himself, but this version of Johnny seems pretty depressed. He feels out of place. He had a lot of success at one point in time, but now feels like he’s nothing.

Karl Urban plays this version of Johnny, and it’s a really interesting type of storytelling. Johnny is a washed-up actor just trying to survive. He puts on this front of “I’m fine,” but deep down he feels defeated. He feels like he has no place in the world, especially in this tournament. He looks around at everyone else and thinks he can’t do anything here.

Many will go through that at some point. We hit a place where we feel like we just aren’t good enough. Like we don’t serve a purpose. We feel like we’ve extended ourselves, our time has passed, we’re burnt out, and there’s nothing left to us. Worse yet, some people feel like they’ve never actually reached what they needed to reach, never really obtained anything. They’ve just been existing.

That hits the mind, the heart, and the spirit in a big way. Like Johnny, you might be putting on a face that everything’s good to go, but on the inside you’re looking at everybody else in the room going, “What am I doing here? I feel like a waste.”

I’ve felt this way at various times in my own life. Looking at myself and going, what have I done? What have I accomplished? What am I actually doing? Am I good enough at being a husband, a person leading a ministry, a pastor? Am I good enough at all?

So what do we do with this?

For Johnny, the switch came after a conversation with Raiden. And what Raiden told him wasn’t that he needed new powers or anything like that. What he needed was a shift in perspective. A change in the way he was looking at things, at who he was and what was taking place in the world around him. Your perspective on life matters. Your perspective of yourself matters.

When I think about that, I can’t help but think about the church in Ephesus that Paul writes to. Paul is writing to a church that’s doing pretty well, but they live in a situation that can be very easily overwhelming. They are surrounded by people and things telling them they’ve lost their minds, that they’re less than, that it looks like they aren’t doing any good at what they’re doing. So in the first couple of chapters, Paul is really reminding them of who they are and what their purpose is.

In chapter two, he talks about how we’re saved through grace by faith so that no man can boast. But then he brings it to this really interesting phrase in verse 10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Paul is correcting their perspective. Helping them understand that they were created for a specific reason. God created them for good works, for a specific purpose, which unfolds as they put their lives in his hands and follow him.

Johnny Cage had to wake his mind up to the fact that he was put there for a specific reason. He kept looking at everyone around him going, “What’s the point of me being here? I’m just an actor.” But throughout the film you see him begin to own his role. He’s not just an actor, he’s a warrior. He’s not just a person who plays characters, he’s someone who can inspire a whole tribe of creatures. He’s not just some old dude who’s past his prime, he’s specifically positioned in a time and place to do the one thing that turns the tide for everyone else.

God created you with a purpose. There is a reason that you are here. There is a position he is trying to put you in so that what he has for you to do is going to change the world.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of going, “What am I doing? What’s the point of me being here?” But there is a reason. As we focus in on our purpose, it’s not just a matter of looking at ourselves, it’s about looking to Christ, looking to Jesus, leaning into his teachings, leaning into what God has for us in the scriptures, and making changes in our lives. Changing our mindsets. Changing how we view ourselves and the people around us. As we focus on those things, we’ll begin to change our view of everything else, and we’ll find peace.

You may not have the giddy happiness you’re looking for,  and honestly, we’re not created to be that way all the time anyway. But you will find peace as you walk in what God has for you.

Don’t give up.