Bowling

You know the smell …. stale alcohol, lingering nicotine, shoe deodorizer, arcade games, billiard balls crashing, snack bar food being made, and the thundering roll and eventually crashing of pins. AHHHH .. the bowling alley.

Bowling is one the activities that I just never really got. I know people enjoy it, I know of family members who plan their social lives around it. But I just can’t get into it.

Instructions:
Pick up ball
Approach Line
Roll Ball (putting a spin on it is preferred)
Try hitting pins at the end
Avoid the gutters
Repeat.

My best score 120 … that was after 3 rounds. That is until I learned a little secret about bowling. Go with kids.

Annoying maybe to have kids running around but something magical happens when you have a group of kids … a bumper rail comes out and there are no worries about going into the gutter. This means you are guaranteened to hit something the first throw when all the pins are up. You can zig zag a roll, you can angle the ball off the rail, etc. You can do anything because the protection is there. No fear the gutters are out of play. Way to go Adam .. you are now knocking on the door of 200!

It amazes me when you have no worries about getting trapped in a place where there is no return until the next shot, because there is a safety barrier. How much more confidence you get. You have no worries, you approach your shot with confidence that the ball will roll on without hitting anything.

The Bible says “No temptation will overtake you except what is common to man, but God is faithful he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able”. Think of it like this … temptation is the gutter; God’s faithfulness is the rail. As long as we realize God will be faithful through our temptations, we dont have to worry about hitting the gutters.

Thats good news for me … time to grab the bowling ball bag, the towel and the rosin … and rent me a pair of shoes … oh yeah and c’mon Sam and Josh … I want to break 200 and I need your help!