Bottom's Up

Of all my ministry related injuries, this was by far the worst. So grateful that I can look back on this one and laugh...

#1 Bottom's Up

I'm a sucker for the summer. I love the beach, grilling up some brauts, and chilling in the pool, but there is something special when you wake up and see the mountains covered in snow.During one of So Cal's better storms, John Bocanegra (the youth pastor that I was serving under) and I decided to take some students up to the mountains to play in the snow. Prior to going up, he purchased an inflatable boat in the hopes that we could all ride down the mountain together. Unfortunately, the boat was a flop, but some nice folks let us ride their inflatable tube down the mountain. We took turns riding down the extremely steep, but relatively safe slop. Naturally, the students got bored of tubing, but John, myself, and Billy (my 250 pound friend) were showing no signs of weariness. Nevertheless, we had to call it quits because it began snowing and we were afraid of getting trapped in the mountains without chains. Since we could not decide who would get the last run, John proposed we all get in the inflatable tube together. I sensed this was a bad idea, but this was was friend and mentor; surely he wouldn't lead me to my demise! In what proved to be a poor decision, I sat in the tube first, with Billy (my 250 pound friend) on top of me, and then John on top of him. The weight prevented me from keeping my body off of the snow, and naturally, as we began to slide down the mountain, my butt was riding on the snow. The tube began to spin, and we were now sliding down backwards and speeds only attainable by military jets. For a brief moment, I thought we might all survive this horrible idea. Unfortunately, I did not account for the large and jagged rock that was just slightly covered by snow. My lower back struck the rock, sending all of us fearless flyers in different directions. I came to a stop and immediately sensed something was wrong as I couldn't move my legs. John comes running over to me, not sensing my pain and anguish. I informed him that I couldn't move my legs, but it was too late, as he was already rolling across my bruised and battered body (I don't know where he learned such a technique). After about a minute or so, I regained movement, but I could not walk very well. My loving friends decided to carry me off the slope and back to the car. I would say they did a fair job as they only dropped me once. Upon getting into the car, I had the joy of a 3 hour drive as traffic was crawling down the now snowy and slick road.

The next day, I was in the doctor's office, convinced that I would be diagnosed with the manliest injury ever. I was unfortunately diagnosed with a gluteal contusion (aka, I bonked my bottom). Well, it took several years to fully recover, and to this day, I still get flare ups of pain which serve as a constant reminder that I will never do something so foolish ever again!