Yes after a three week break, I bowled with our church team tonight. Our team is currently in 8th place, but that will change after tonight. We bowled the 2nd place team and they took us to task, even though they spotted us 92 pins. The only game that was close was the last and it came down to the last ball thrown. We lost all three games and total pins. We will be moving down in the standings, but we are only about five weeks in. I started the night with a 149 average and bowled a 131, 136, and a 168 for a 434 series. That will bring my season average to 147. Considering I bowled a 128 average the first two years, that’s quite a change.

Last year, several on the bowling team contributed to a pair of bowling shoes for me for pastor appreciation. This year, they have given me a bowling ball. It comes in tomorrow, so I need to go over and have it bored for my fingers. This is pretty cool, I’ve never had my own bowling ball before. I’m looking forward to trying it out if I have it by next week.

Lesson learned: Last year I used this to teach little stories, so here is my lesson learned tonight. Several weeks ago, I told you I tried a new approach and it seemed to work. Tonight, that approach didn’t give me the scores I was looking for. So, I took the risk and tried something one of my teammates told me last year. He said if you are consistently going right, try moving to the right. It doesn’t make any more sense at first than Doc Hudson’s advise to turn right to go left on dirt (from the movie Cars.) But I tried it and about four frames into game three success and I finished with a 168 for the game. Sometimes we need to try things that are counter-intuitive. Again this involves risk and that isn’t something we always want to do. Lesson learned!