It's Mario Time!

My favorite female classmate, Sandy, picked me up from dance practice at 2:20 on Saturday. She said we were going to go play games with the youth from her church. Although I am not Christian, being a Unitarian Universalist, I never turn down an opportunity to learn about other religions. Also, I miss my church back in South Bend (1st UU) So I went expecting to meet cool new people and play board games. Boy, was I wrong! We arrived at a park that was full of teens. Sandy quickly found our other team members, who were all very friendly and cool, and we sat down in front of a stage that looked like a castle, on seats that looked like pianos. The event opened with a quick play in which "Peach" gets captured by "Bowzer" and "Mario" and "Luigi" start to fight him. And we were off. I played many different games. One of my favorites was where one member of each team stands on a box, each with one end of a rope in the hands. The goal was to pull the other player off of their box. I won, of course. After that, we went to the most exciting Christian music concert I have ever heard of, let alone, been to! I was standing at the front of the stage with Sandy and my new friends. When the tempo was fast we would all jump up and down to the beat. When the tempo was slow we would hold up our hands and sing along. The energy was amazing, it was peaceful and caring but passionate and joyful. When I was in Catholic school, growing up, I was that kid who would ask things like "what about the people who never hear about Jesus or the ones who came before him? They have to spend eternity in hell because of their bad luck?" or " if Jesus died to wash away our sins, why do we still have to get baptized?" But, as I was listening to a song where the only words I could understand was "Jesus, I love you" and "Yes I am" I realized that religion isn't about finding the flaws, it's about finding the truths. I hope to go to church with Sandy sometime. Something tells me there's a lot I will learn.