Sometimes I wonder if I’ve outgrown all this wrestling stuff.

That’s kind of how I felt last night watching Wrestlemania XXIX.  I spent all week blogging about my excitement for the event. I ordered a hundred chicken wings and invited all my friends to the house. I drank unhealthy amounts of Cheerwine out of the giant Hulk Hogan mug I found at a flea market a few months ago.

All the elements were there for an epic night. Then the show started.

Things happened. All the familiar faces won. There were no surprises. No spectacular spots. No fantastic finishes. No Wrestlemania moments.

I can’t totally bash the show. I was never bored watching it. CM Punk and The Undertaker got me to jump out of my seat a few times. And I was blessed to reconnect with some old friends. But I was never truly captivated.

Things just aren’t what they used to be. The WWE scripting  seems tired and lazy. John Cena vs. The Rock last year was supposed to be “Once In A Lifetime” – until it made millions of dollars for WWE and then it became “Twice In A Lifetime”.

WWE’s most dedicated fans are being ignored – the ones who chant “boring” at John Cena as he wins his 11th WWE Championship. All the while the most talented superstars are getting shoved to the side to make room for the guys who wrestle once a year.

Wrestlemania, which used to be a showcase and a reward for the wrestlers who busted their butts the other 364 days a year, has now become this strange megashow focused more on the past than the future.

And every time I get my hopes up for a moment on Raw or Smackdown which signals the wrestling writers might be going back to the things that made me a fan in a first place I end up disappointed a week later when the storyline gets dropped out of nowhere. My passion for the squared circle is waning after being disappointed again and again and again.Am I just too old for wrestling?

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It’s funny – I wonder sometimes too if I’ve outgrown The Bible. As I teach these words week after week to students I wonder if the stories will ever grow old.

Sometimes I grow tired of looking for new meanings in the scriptures. Sometimes the words seem empty and I think maybe there is nothing new to know. Sometimes I read the bizarre and brutal events of the Old Testament and wonder if I’ve outgrown such a barbaric and harsh text in today’s PC culture.

Every time I get in this funk though, something comes along like the One Year Bible plan to completely humble me. Last year I followed the One Year Bible and read through the Word every day, getting a dose of the Old and New Testaments, the Psalms, and the Proverbs each morning.

The Bible came alive for me like never before. Connections and parallels through the ages stuck out to me I had never seen. God came through to me, like I learned He has for person after person from age to age.

This year I’m reading a chronological Bible plan. As I go through it day to day, I realize there’s still more to learn. You can read the Bible from cover to cover. But you will never truly finish reading the Bible in your lifetime. If you open your mind and your heart to this living word, you cannot outgrow it.

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I’ll always have a place in my heart for the underrated art of wrestling, the Shakespearean stories reflected in an athletic and operatic dance between the ropes. I’ll also always be thankful for the way wrestling has brought my friends and I closer. It provides one night a week for us all to gather in fellowship and share our lives together. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully break up with the spandex soap opera.

I hope tonight on Monday Night Raw my wrestling faith will be restored. I kind of felt the same malaise about Wrestlemania the past two years, and ended up getting hooked again by something exciting in the weeks after.

Maybe something crazy will happen tonight. Maybe a Dolph Ziggler-type will finally get his moment to shine outside the constraints of the supershow. Maybe Wrestlemania XXIX was just an off night. Maybe something will happen which will make me smile like a kid again.

Or maybe God is still teaching me, leading me toward something better, breaking me up with what I feel comfortable with. Who knows? All I can do is pray He will lead me to outgrow what I don’t need and trust I will never be too old to have it all figured out.

Do you ever feel like you’ve outgrown your relationship with God? How do you wrestle with this issue?