Hey... Do you like Dodgeball?

I wrote this in journal a week ago while we were at IWU…
It’s been something I’ve been continuing to think about, so I decided to share it on the blog since its been awhile since I shared anything.



September 7th 2010. IWU Library.
One warm sunny Monday afternoon, Atlantic visited a backyard pool party in a Midwestern state in the United States of America. We pulled over just outside Indianapolis Indiana for a quick catch-up with some friends of the band. It was here in this setting that I met a man who understands life better than most. His example and his stories inspire me to live a life filled with playful joy, and refreshing authenticity.

I met a man named John Freed. It’s not unusual for us to meet new people. We meet lots of people (It’s kind of one of the perks of participating in a traveling ministry team: there are always plenty of interesting new people to meet). But John stood out to me because his stories fascinated me. What grabbed my attention was the unorthodox way John was going about planting a church in his local community.

See John wasn’t running around gathering graduates from Christian colleges… he wasn’t waiting passively for the clouds to rip open and a beam of light to shine upon a plot of land that had a for sale sign posted into the earth…and he wasn’t isolating himself in his office designing and refining a polished ministry program that would appeal to the masses of people who didn’t know Jesus… John was out playing Dodge ball.

Yah. You read that right. John was out and about in his community just living life. He started up an adult drop-in dodge ball program and felt compelled to invite random strangers that crossed his path to join him and his buddies out for a nostalgic game of dodgeball. He told us a bunch of hilarious stories of times where he invited a bunch of complete strangers out to play dodge ball. (The whole thing has a mysterious and ominous ‘Fight Club’ vibe to it all, which is a ridiculous parallel that only adds to this hilarious situation). John wanders up to complete strangers and asks them if they like dodge ball. The whole conversation is just so absurd that it frequently shatters the tension that usually keeps strangers separated from one another.

Just picture this.
Imagine a young man just walking up to you and interrupting your mundane routine to ask you a simple question. “Hey…” he says as the early stages of a smile start to form on his face. “Do you like playing Dodge Ball?”

What a wild and ridiculous offer of friendship! There’s something tantalizingly mysterious and horribly intriguing about this rare behavior. I love that John shared this with me. I think this is what we need. I want to live in such a distinctly different way that boggles peoples’ minds. And this longing for holy distinction needs to not look like some cold and callous way of distinguishing ourselves from those around us, RATHER, being the holy people of God should mean that we are marked by a distinct warmth that welcomes others into the joy that we’ve found.

Can we PLEASE live like this!?!?! Can I just offer people this ridiculous love that I’ve been given? What if we offered friendship to people who hadn’t earned it… what if we were so generous with our smiles and laughter that we made people curious about the reason for our heartwarming attitude? What if we gave unsuspecting strangers more of these mysterious invitations to share life with us so that we could spend time caring for them and just being their friend?
We could change the world one person at a time if all of God’s people adopted this hope for blessing their neighbours in response to the extravagant blessings our God has poured upon us.

Just think about it.
Go grab some friends. Pick a time and a place. Go shop for some matching 70’s shorts at a used clothing store… and then get out into this lonely world and invite unsuspecting people into friendship, invite stressed out business-people to come out and join you for a play-date… Let’s all just go out there and play some Dodge Ball.