Time to Play

Its been a while since I haven't had a time to play sports. I'd been looking forward to play badminton again and experience the pleasure of moving around, smashing and dropping and simply being inside the court . 

Finally, I had a chance to play again last night with my friday cell group. It was a very good break time. I was not only relieved from tensions but it also helped break down the walls of pretensions in my group. We got real when we're inside the court. We've freely expressed our excitements and dismays. We've learned to say sorry when we miss to hit the shuttle cock . We've learned to utter words of affirmation. We've shown gestures of love. 

Since we only rented one court for the group, not everyone of us can play at the same time. So during my break time, I had a chance to talk with one of our group members who had been  sporadic in joining our cell meetings. He used to be very reserved and avoids conversation but last night he seemed to be very open and lively. He started to share about his emotional condition. He relayed that he just broke up with his girlfriend a week ago. He wanted to get back to God and rebuild his ruined life. He felt like he lost his identity since his life started to revolved around that woman. But now he wanted it back.

I affirmed him for taking such courage to make that right decision. I've personally witness how the relationship had dragged him away from God and his family and I'm just happy to see how the Lord had answered my prayers that God will open his eyes. I'm excited on how the Lord will bring restoration and healing in his life and his family.

It wasn't my intention to turned my play time to a counseling time but I believe that God used our play time to create an atmosphere of openness so he can freely share. In fact he was thankful for that play because it helped him get through another day with excitement.

I went home still feeling the pleasure of the game but more than that I brought home with me the joy of being able to hear his story. Then I realized that the time to play was over...the time to pray had begun.