Hamster Lives out Proverbs 27:17

There are a group of boys at Christ Church Savannah that are a bit different than our typical fellow worshipers. A couple of these boys have really long hair. One of them has a peculiar fascination with the color purple (the actual color, not the movie). They all wear black. None of these boys have quite learned what the word appropriate means. They are wild tribe of skateboarders, and it is for all of these reasons and many others that I love 'em. If you were to judge these boys solely on the stereotypes of black hoodie-wearing skateboarders, you would be missing the opportunity to be in the presence of a handful of young men with huge hearts.

This tribe is my small group. These boys and I sit at Panera Bread each week, eating bagels with our Bibles cracked open, and skateboards around the legs of the table. They usually get distracted during the Bible study, but that’s not where our ministry really takes place anyway.

After an hour of Bible study, we all head to the skateboard park for the next 3 hours. I spend most of my time watching them, and taking pictures and video of the action . Last week something very special happened as Hunter Hughes was trying to learn to drop into a quarter pipe. I stood on the opposite side of the quater pipe facing Hunter and what I caught on video was beautiful. Once the tribe realized that Hunter was trying something new and difficult they stopped skating, and gathered behind him.

Hunter got in place at the top of the ramp, and tribe began to speak words of instruction. He dropped in…SMACK! Hunter hit the ground hard, and face first. The tribe began to shout out words of encouragement.

Hunter got back into place. More words of encouragement. SMACK!

SMACK! “That’s ok Hunter, you’ll get it."

SMACK! “You’ll get it next time”.

SMACK! The tribe began to clap. “Nice try man, you’ll get it."

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Hunter hit the ground hard 11 times. He was bumped, bloody, and bruised. He even thought about giving up, but the tribe would have none of that.

On Hunter’s 12th try, he landed it.  Not perfectly, but he landed it. The tribe in uniform jumped to its' feet, with hands raised and cheerful screams.

My small group is a bunch of skateboarding rabble-rousers, and I see the love of Jesus in and through them. They understand what it means to love others first. I wanted to call our small group “Ironmen” from Proverbs 27:17, which reads, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." True to form however,  these boys want to call the group “Hamster."  I guess you can also see Jesus' love in a cuddly hamster too, though this one will have long hair tucked under a purple bandanna.