The Woes of a Derby Chick

The entire world was against me! Nothing could change that fact! The very first roller derby scrimmage I have been invited to was out of my reach!
I had been practicing roller derby for seven months and I thought it was high time I was on a track, battling against other girls on wheels, and knocking people over. But . . . everything around me seemed to think otherwise.
There was so much that had to be done before the scrimmage, which was only five days away. I had to get roller derby insurance, and I didn't know how to do that at all. I had to pass a minimum skills requirement test, which it a seven sheet paper on various ways to skate, how to legally hit opponents, how to properly fall, and several other derby regulations. Someone mentioned a one hundred question test on the gazillion rules of derby, which I knew nothing about. And! On top of everything else, I knew if I faked my way through everything, pretending the entire time I knew what I was doing, I would have to be in the scrimmage. Face players who knew what they were doing. Skate against big girls with big attitudes. I could get hurt. I could suck. I could make a fool of myself. I could find out, after seven months of practicing, that derby just isn't for me. Needless to say, all that week I was freaking out.

God is so good though! Every time I would panic and start thinking what if . . . He would stop me and say, "It'll work out. I know what I'm doing." That would calm me down a little and I would focus on His truth.

The day finally came. The scrimmage was at noon and I had one hour to pass the minimum skills requirement test. No sweat! That was the easy part in my mind. I began to do the drills and, one by one, things were checked off the list. Midway through, I had to skate the length of the track on one foot. Oh I can do that! I thought. Everyone, stand clear! The master's going through!

I failed it.
I had forgotten that my skates, which were the cheapest I could find, were broken. The front two wheels were bent, therefore it was impossible to skate in a straight line.
My heart was crushed. Not just a little. A lot. Imagine my heart is a porcelain doll. Imagine a piano suspended thirty stories above my cute, fragile porcelain doll heart. Imagine the piano falling. That's how my heart was crushed. It hurt.
Now what? I don't have skates that will work, I couldn't pass the minimum skills test because of my skates, the whispers of a required written test disturbed me, and nothing was gone right! But every time I began to freak out, God reminded me, "Calm down. I got this covered." So, after a few deep breathes, I drove with a friend to the scrimmage, praying all the why.
And guess what?
I got to participate!
Because it was a scrimmage, a lot of derby regulations didn't apply. A friend let me barrow her skates, which were not broken. Also, that horrible written test wasn't mentioned, so I didn't mention it either. God was so good! It was one of the most amazing, scary days! I got knocked over about a dozen times, nearly skated over a kid, and didn't make any points, but, man alive! I had a blast!
And that's because God had it covered. He's got my back; and yours.