#148 Shots Fired

For some reason I've been in a bit of "ten years ago" kick lately on my blog. There's probably good reason for that (beyond that fact that we ten-fingered humans use a decimal number system). 2009 was an incredibly formative year for me: I really began embracing the idea that God was calling me into ministry, I left home for college (following a couple summer adventures), and I met my future wife, plus a whole bunch of my closest friends, for the first time.

But we're not here to talk about any of that stuff today. In the midst of me falling in love and growing into my identity and all that jazz, I had one of the most bizarre and frightening experiences of my life on October 28, 2009. It was late in my first cross country season at Trinity. We were getting ready for the conference meet. Joey (our senior captain) and Bo (our student assistant) and I were a little ways west of campus finishing up a pretty standard run. (I think it was our 7-mile bike loop route, but I'm not totally sure on that.) As we ran on the left side of a quiet residential street, we saw a vehicle approaching us. Suddenly a masked figure dressed in black popped out of the sunroof and pointed something at us. We heard a pop-pop-pop-pop. This guy was shooting paintballs at us! We scampered off the road but couldn't find any real cover and ended up just sort of crouched together. We were hit a few times, including a shot that hit me in my right temple. The car passed us and disappeared. After determing that we were really okay, though pretty seriously shaken, we finished our run. Our coach was rightfully furious when he saw the paint and heard our story. He called in a report to the police. However, we hadn't been paying much attention to the vehicle when we first saw it, and then we were concerned about protecting ourselves, so we weren't able to provide much of a description. Nothing more ever came of the drive-by paintball shooting incident. It might sound ridiculous or even funny when you read about, but let me tell you, it was pretty stinking terrifying to experience. We were totally caught off guard and didn't know what was going on. But hey, at least we got a story out of the ordeal.

Grace and peace,
BMH