Christian Bowling (How I Created My Own Christian Bubble)

"Christian Bowling." I think I cringed a little bit last week when I heard the announcement at church about forming a team for a Christian bowling league. What exactly is Christian Bowling, was my first thought. Is it it like regular bowling, except with an added prayer before each roll of the ball? Instead of Rock and Roll playing on the jukebox, are there hymns belted out by a choir?

But in all seriousness, what makes Christian bowling...Christian?

I have no answer.

I know I don't like the thought of a Christian bowling league. To me, a Christian bowling league says, "We think we are too good to be in a regular bowling league, so we will form our own." I guess this shouldn't surprise me, though. We as Christians have been forming our own little 'Bubbles' for years. We have our Christian schools, our Christian colleges (which I even attened), our Christian music , our Christian radio stations, our Christian books, Christian tv stations, and even our "Christian" political leaders. (I thought the quotation marks around Christian were needed when talking about politicians.) It seems sometimes that we are more exclusive when we should be more inclusive. But I am not going to go off on a tangent here. I want to share about my own little bubble.

I know I have shared this before, but I wasn't too concerned with God for a few years during college. I mean I believed in God and all, but I was more concerned with what I wanted rather than what He wanted. I loved God, but He wasn't high on my priority list. Around the end of my college years, my priorities started to change. I started to change. God became more and more a priority in my life. I wanted to follow Him more and more. And with any change, you have to figure out what to do with the past?

I created my own Christian bubble. I guess because I had this past, and now I didn't want to be associated with anything from it. This includes people. I stopped hanging around with old friends. It's not that my old friends weren't Christian; they just were Christian enough. (whatever that means)

I am at a different place now, outside of the Christian bubble I created. I have found I can breathe easier out here. I don't have thoughts like, "Oh I can't go to a party because there will be drunk people there and I can't associate myself with that." I don't think, "I can't be friends with these people because they are not spiritual enough." I really don't care if other people see me hanging out in a non-Christian environment. As a friend recently wrote to me, "That's why I have found it so easy to enjoy the company of unbelievers...they know they are messed up and don't try to hide it...they are more real than we are...they don't flaunt being "more spiritual."

It's funny because I feel that for most Christians I am either too Christian or not Christian enough. (again, whatever that means.) I know that some Christians judge me because I don't think alcohol, dancing, and wearing jeans to church are sins. And on the other hand, some judge me because I am actually not afraid to say I love Jesus and I want Him to be my first priority.

I know I don't want to be in a Christian bubble again. I know I don't want to seperate myself from the rest of the world.

I just want to be more like Jesus.

I want to go places that the religious folk don't think I should go. And be friends with the people the religious folk say I shouldn't hang around. But I still want to be known as a man after God's own heart.

In the world, but not of it. Just like Jesus.

I want to be a follower of Christ in just a regular bowling league.