Bowling with Bumpers

I’m not a good bowler. In fact, I’m quite terrible. Not only am I not good at it, my friends mock my bowling style. They say I look like a monkey. I’ll never forget years ago when I took a girl bowling for our first date and I bowled a 55. I’m lucky I got a second date after a performance like that. I never did get a third date though, she got engaged and not to me. If only I had bowled with bumpers.

Saturday, for the first time in my life I did just that, I bowled with bumpers and it was great. No more embarrassing gutter balls. Sure, I still bowl like a limp wristed orangutan but the results are now quite different. Now instead of getting gutter balls I hit the pins. And it’s not that I don't deserve the gutter balls. I do. While I was bowling I couldn’t help but think about the concept of Grace.

Grace is getting something great even though you don’t deserve it. Grace isn’t earned. Grace is bouncing your bowling ball off of the bumper and getting a strike.Thank God for bumpers, thank God for grace.