Why WRESTLE?

“Can we wrestle?” the overly exuberant youth ran up breathlessly and asked as soon as I slammed the thin door of my Jeep and touched ground on the slowly greening turf surrounding our Skatepark. You’d think I’d be ready for ANYTHING by now but for some reason this caught me with my guard down…

“Whatever,” I shrugged, “I can’t stop you.”

I failed to match his enthusiasm and he felt it.

“Well,” he continued still quivering with excitement, “I just thought I’d ask since you are ‘The Guy’ down here!”

“As long as everyone involved is a voluntary participant and no real damage is done to ANYONE… AND you find a quiet corner to conduct your contests… Have at it…I guess. If anyone WANTS to GRAPPLE go ahead,” I answered with as much spontaneous wisdom as I could muster.

“WE ARE GOLDEN!!! HE SAYS WE CAN!!!” the teen shouted running back to the dozen or so young people waiting impatiently for “The Guy” – whatever that means I am – to render a verdict. But before I could count to ten and slap the canvas two young men had laced up BOXING GLOVES and were sparring on the corner of two very public streets bordering the park!

Have you ever been asked for your approval based on a certain amount of information and once granted, realize you were sold a false bill of goods? Curious thing about life in the Skatepark – it changes faster than Michigan weather so before I confronted this unsettling circumstance, I sized up the pugilistic combatants, and they were two of my more “reasonable” personalities (I know – right?) and figured after a couple of good blows to the head they would cease and desist.

For the first time last night I was right – Praise God – and everyone abandoned the prize fight for the gift of good free food – Thank you Lee and Jimmy for winning the opening round with your spicy soup, cookies, and donuts on the cool evening while I fired up the grill.

“Young man,” I queried the roughly seven year old riding a scooter a safe distance from the recently concluded “Main Event”, “would you like a hotdog? And whatever snacks you find under the pavilion are yours for the taking.”

“Hotdogs?” he asked gliding to stop with a thoughtful gaze sweeping across his face, “will there be a charge? What will they cost?”

BLESS MY SOUL! A young man who realizes nothing in life is free – there IS hope for the future!

“My young friend,” I announced joyously, “there is no cost to what we offer on Wednesday night!”

He immediately paddled his scooter over to his caretaker sitting atop the half pipe – I am assuming was his mother who looked like she could be my granddaughter – and her brow immediately became furrowed in right consideration of her son’s odd revelation that there was free food for the taking. I walked the short distance and introduced myself as “The Guy” – just kidding, “Hello, I’m Randall and for the last 12 years we have been doing this on Wednesday nights. We grill dogs, serve pop and snacks and there is no cost to anyone, so feel free to partake of whatever looks good to you.”

But my joyous proclamation had quite the opposite effect of what I desired.

“I’ll make dinner when we get home!” she declared in a manner less than positive.

The young boy looked saddened but not surprised. I just raised my hands as if to say, “No offence intended,” and walked back to the flaming grill…

The balance of the evening was prosperous. The youth ate their fill on a chilly windy night and as we wound down a young man I had not seen before said, “THANK YOU for the food! Hey guys, I think I am the only to have said this ALL night!” Many of them looked chagrinned at his admonishment so I stepped in…

“Well,” I grinned, “we do appreciate you appreciating us and we do this gladly AND I got a lot of ‘Thank you’ at the grill. So it’s all good.” That seemed to help – and I did hear Lee get at least one very emphatic compliment on her warm, spicy soup.

As the youth drifted away the five of us from Woodgrove sat and shared tales of what we ate during lean seasons in our young lives and Pat and Mitzi talked about receiving a gift of beef tongue when hunger was too regular a guest at their table… “We boiled it, and boiled it, AND boiled it! And when it was finally ‘done’ we looked in the cupboard and ALL we had to eat with it was BEETS!!”

I laughed until it HURT!!!

You see just hours before Pat and I had been in the fellowship of our Woodgrove Brothers at “Luke Out” where we talk for hours in the church solving all the world’s problems and laughing too much and telling tall tales and…doing good deeds in the community when called upon. Well yesterday David brought pan fried smelt and sautéed zucchini in butter and parmesan cheese, Denny brought the BEST homemade apple crisp EVER, and being on my bicycle I threw a bag of sea salt and vinegar kettle chips in my backpack to supplement the fish… We ate until we could eat no more – such was the abundance!

…and now we remembered times of tongue and beets!!!

It all got me to thinking…

Why do we human beings wrestle with what is readily available in rich supply? Why do we fight a hunger so deep it starves our very soul when, mere strides away, sits the banquet table overflowing to which we are joyously invited? Why do we deny it all to turn away and try to feed ourselves “when we get home” while the embrace of fellowship longs to break the most delicious Bread of Life with us?

Maybe we sell it – Christ’s satisfying grace and mercy – too cheap. Maybe we say too often with too much nonchalance, “My young friend there is no cost!” Maybe society knows in its heart of hearts there is indeed a cost and feel like they are being sold a false bill of goods…

Because there is a cost.

The cost is the same as Wednesday nights in the Skatepark but on a magnificent, eternal, redeeming, scale!

The cost is RELATIONSHIP!

The cost of Christ’s offering is a bountiful relationship where we dine at the table of the Master and like last week – where our hardworking prospering “Skatepark Family” returned to share about their accomplishments – we commune with the Divine and give an accounting of our utilized talents and He blesses us with strength and sustenance to carry on with Him!

It is a table where hunger does not reside and I want those chairs around it filled with ALL who now have growling, hungry souls!

“You’ll have to ‘dumpster dive’,” Lee told me as we cleaned up to leave, “because I saw one of the kids throw away your pop bottle.”

“Lee,” I sighed gazing into the bottom of the big trash can where my now filthy bottle rested, “I just don’t have it in me for ten cents tonight.”

“I do!” Lee said.

May we always “Have it in us” to retrieve that which has value beyond measure!!

May our tongues ALWAYS profess the JOY of our faith before anyone else has to take a “beeting” before accepting the invitation to the Table of our Lord and Savior!!!