At one point or another I had 10 different Cheetor figures (which is impressive considering at that point there were only 5 different molds available at the time. I made sure that I had double everything so that I could display all the figures in both robot and cheetah mode. Eventually I decided to liquidate my Beast Wars collection because I needed funds to build up my growing Alternators collection. But even after getting rid of all of my other Beast Wars toys I held onto my Cheetors for a while longer - even making them the focus of a now famous Jr. High devotional video during Joanna's first maternity leave. But even that had to end. As I got older and my collection evolved I divested myself of all of my Cheetors and moved onto another character to centre my collection around.
So in 2009 during the 25th anniversary of Transformers Hasbro released the Universe line of toys as a sort of re-imagining of the greatest characters form the history of the toy line. You can imagine how excited I was when I heard that they were releasing a new Cheetor figure based on the original Beast Wars incarnation. I picked up the figure the first time I saw it in stores. Now unlike any of the other toys I've purged during this season Cheetor is from a toy line that I'm still actively collecting (although less actively recently - but that's another story that I'll perhaps share at a later date) so parting with this figure is a little more significant than learning to purge things I don't need or want.
The reason I chose Cheetor to go next (believe me there is a lot of other stuff I could have done first) is symbolic - like this exercise as a whole. Cheetor to me represents a time in my life when I pursued what I wanted with reckless abandon. If I saw something I fancied I bought it - it didn't matter if I needed it (which I didn't) or if I could afford it (most of the time I couldn't) I lived a life completely absorbed with me. That's not to say I was a bad person - most of my Cheetor purchases took place when I was still a student in Bible College and I was very serious about following Jesus - but my faith (like my attitude toward so many other things in life) was immature. God has been calling me deeper in the last few years and the last 8-9 months or so have been especially challenging as I have been thrust into a position of leadership without being given a corresponding mantle of said leadership. These months of transition have been difficult, I have learned things about myself - some of them wonderful, some of them not - but through it all God has forced me to grow. When I was in Guatemala in 2010 I had a powerful experience in a church service down there when the pastor preached a message on James chapter 1. The core scripture was this:Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4 (NIV)What I have learned over this past year is that the trials and tribulations of life have been what God has used to shape me and make me grow. I'm going to be sharing a little bit of the specifics of this tomorrow morning in the service so I don't want to give you and excuse not to be at church so I'll be intentionally vague for now. But suffice it to say that while I still have miles to go on this journey toward spiritual maturity, and this journey toward being the man, husband, father and pastor that God has called me to be - I feel like I've covered a lot of ground since I was last collecting Cheetor figures. Which is why I think it's time for this guy to find a new home. It's time for me to say goodbye to the things that tie me back to my immature faith and celebrate things instead that remind me of a faith that is maturing. It's hard for me to admit - but Cheetor, I've outgrown you. Now it's time to move forward.
Until Monday,
Chris
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