fight night

last night i went to fight night at the tank
with dave, mike and his brother-
it was gnarly.
i never want to be a boxer.
it looks pretty painful.
and i never want my daughter to be a ring-girl
modest is hottest
and these girls must have been feeling pretty cold.

we had awesome seats
we were on the floor-
maybe 20 feet from the ring.

i was on the aisle seat
and so i got to see the boxers up close
on their way in and out.
i thought my aisle was bad luck,
but i later found out that there is a
“favored to win” side and we weren’t on it.

so i got to encourage
all of the the losers on their way out.
i shook hands with 3 of the 4 boxers on their way out.

it was so cool.
i said encouraging things to them like:
“good job dog!” “great fight!”
and “i thought that you won!”

i thought that middle schoolers were a tough crowd-
boxing fans are a really tough crowd.
they spent most of the night boo-ing.
they wanted to see blood or knockouts-
and when they didn’t- the boxers heard the boos.

the crowd was calling out the boxers and swearing at them.

and the boxers heard it-

and sometimes reacted.
there was a rap performance by a local rapper-
the crowd’s boos were almost as loud as his music.
the crowd only got loud for the ring girls.

you take a risk getting up front in front of everybody.
some nights you win,
some nights you lose.
some nights you walk away with the crowd cheering,
some nights they boo-
some nights you’re working your tail off-
surrendering your blood sweat and tears-

and the crowd just wants more action-
or more eye-candy.
or ear-candy-
or just candy.
some nights you look for an
encouraging voice after you got beat up.

i guess that
being in ministry is a lot like being a boxer-

so-

ring the bell!

its time for a knockout!

i'm not scared!