Thailand in April is hot. So much so that next week their is a 3 day national holiday designated to nation wide water fights to help cool off. A typical day is in the 90’s and it is nearly impossible to not sweat . Yesterday was both our off day and a much welcomed cooler day (around mid 70’s) due to the spotty rain showers we had throughout the day. That morning we had all dirtied one pair of cloths from playing a couple games in the rain so the goal was to stay clean the rest of the day. In the evening we were hanging out with the kids and I had two goals in mind,
1. I didn’t want to sweat
2. To show love to these girls
As it turned out 1 of these goals overruled the other.
We were throwing the classic nerf whistle football around and I thought “We should start a game.”
The thought process being,
(a)We had been told by our host how much they love playing American football
therefore…
(b) They know how to play already so we wouldn’t have to explain
also…
(c) They can run around as much as they want
while…
(d) I’ll just be one of the quarterbacks and not move around too much.
So I got cones to set up the field and we started playing. We quickly found out the only right parts of my thought process were (a)&(c) they love playing football and they could run around as much as they want. However, it turns out they had no idea how to play which turned into the quarterback position not existing because without a translator the rules of football proved to be difficult to communicate. We ended up going with the flow and making up our own game if football with the rules they understood.
The rules they understood where.
1. When someone tags you, you have to stop.
2. You score in the end-zone.
That’s about it. Combine those two rules with the rules they made out of their confusion.
1. There is no out of bounds or offsides.
2. There is no stoppage of play.
3. Whenever the ball hits the ground it’s a free for all.
4. No stripping the ball
5. You can run until you are tagged.
6. Whenever you are tagged while possessing the football you throw it to someone else.
My mindset of how this time was gonna go had to completely change. Combined with needing to being ok with not playing right I also had to make the decision to embrace the wrong. Early on I had to decide which of my two goals were more important, not sweating or loving these girls to the best of my ability because in this moment, the two could not coexist.
In the words of my teammate Zach “Some people are worth melting for.” For the next hour the three of us who were playing with them gave it all we had. Between the multiple slips and falls, to throwing it over a dozen times to the little 5 year old girl in the end-zone (and seeing her miss it a dozen times), and a whole lot of running, it all resulted in one of the most memorable evenings of the race. After that hour I was more muddy and sweaty than I’ve been the rest of this month and it was all worth it.
Life doesn’t always go the way you want or imagine. I pray when this happens you don’t become discouraged but instead you keep eyes on Christ. As my dad always says.
“There is no such thing as problems, only opportunities.”
If you stay focused on both receiving the love Christ has for you and sharing that love with others through your actions or your words, nothing will be able to hold you down.
