Today, my church threw their very first Bubble Bowl Tournament. It's like soccer, except in bubble suits! I didn't sign up because I didn't want to get mowed over by people, but it turns out that my brother's team needed someone to fill in and I decided it might be a good story to tell people in the future. You know, of getting mowed over by a bubble.
AND SO IT IS:
Watching from the bleachers and strategizing a way to dominate our opponent was easy. But actually being on the gym floor inside a claustrophobic bubble the weight of a few hobbits was definitely not easy. I had to put my arms through straps and hold onto handles as I lugged the thing around. When the soccer ball dropped to initiate the game, I quickly found out how it felt like to depend on a plastic bubble to keep me from death. Have you ever done that? Put your complete faith in a bubble? That is a feeling you will never forget.
We lost both games, but I didn't mind because by the second go-around I was having fun. When my jams came on, you could see a blue bubble dancing with two wobbly feet. That was me. Totally me.
Shortly after the first game, though, one of our opponents barreled into the corner of the gym and wrecked his knees up pretty bad. I don't know what came over me as I approached him but I said, "Would you like us to pray for you?" I figured he would say no, and that was that. Or if he said yes, then we could just do that I'll-pray-for-you-in-my-head thing during the next part of the game. He did say yes, but I found myself kneeling over and praying aloud for his knees to heal because, well why not? People might think, "Why would Jesus care about an injury from a tournament? He doesn't even care about a silly bubble bowl." But here's the thing that I pieced together as I prayed.
The Bubble Bowl is fun. Like...really fun. And I think a lot of people forget just how fun God is. Yeah! He's fun! Where do you think the word comes from? Someone's had to laugh first for us to know what it even is. God wants us to have fun--the Christian lifestyle is not boring. And when there's an injury in the midst of said fun, why not just pray for it? God wants to heal us anyway, and what better reason to have fun in His name? Mowing over people with bubbles?
When I was done, I realized everyone that was in the vicinity of his injury came and prayed for him, too. There were at least five other people praying out loud with me, and it blew me away. Not in the sense that I didn't expect it, but just how much I loved how our church can pray at an out-of-church event with just as much passion as they would during praise and worship.
I quickly became inspired to write about it as everyone got up and continued on like praying was just a natural thing to do--just like breathing. I'm really proud of everyone in our church, and even anyone who simply prays out loud outside of church for anything. It's bold, it's inspiring and it's effective.
It makes for a very, very fine life!
