Baptism

There was a commercial the other day where I turned around just in time to see a man rescuing a goldfish (fishbowl and all) from a burning building.

I had never thought of that before. Have you? Cats and dogs, yes, but fish?

Well, fish are people, too.

I also just saw a poster with the words, "men are only temporary. Cats are eternal."

Yes.

Speaking of water and eternity, I got baptized yesterday. I can't help but think about the Crystal Castle's song "baptism" which I love. But that song is about bitterness and hopelessness, which is not how my baptism was.

As you know, I'm on a road trip. I'm currently in the state of Oklahoma, and Heather and I were visiting her good friends by going to their church for a Saturday night service. It was great. I was skeptical at first about the genuinity of the worship and the biblicality of the teaching, but it all came together, for SURE. And, go figure, this church has the resources to have an ever-ready baptismal pool thing in a room adjacent to the sanctuary. After each service, if someone "gets saved," they can get baptized immediately. The church is called Church on the Move, but when I messed up and called it "Church on the Go," maybe I wasn't so wrong.

A cool thing about this church is that at the end of each service, EVERYBODY stands and says a salvation prayer together. There's no altar call or awkward hand-raising and every believer gets the opportunity, not to say it again in case it didn't work last time (that's not how it works) but to tell God again how much they love Him and want to love Him more.

And it gives those who weren't  believers the chance to say the prayer with the rest of the church and maybe to mean it for the first time.

I love it.

And then there's no awkward waiting time like I had where I felt like I had to wait until it was JUST the right time to get baptized. The church is bringing it back to the days when preachers would come to towns and the people would experience revival and run to the river to be baptized (that's how it is in the movies anyway). And even to when people listened to John and did the same thing!

You don't have to wait. Get baptized spiritually and physically!

Anyway. I hadn't gotten this feeling in a while, but I got it when everybody stood up to go home or get drinks from the church café. That sinking, tight stomach feeling that I can kind of ignore until I get out into the parking lot and it might go away but it pretty much means God is convicting me to do something right away and I'll feel better if I do it.

So, I ask Heather and her friend (who works for her church) "can you guys baptize me?"

So we do it. Finally.

I was really concerned that everyone would think I wasn't truly serious about having Jesus as my savior. I wanted them to know I had been a Christian for a while and I was "one of them."  I know I looked so nervous and shifty to them.

The first lady I talked to asked me, "do you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior?" (Or something like that) and I answered yes and then tried to spit out the rest of my testimony. She stopped me and said, "it doesn't matter, so long as Jesus is in your heart."

Well, okay.

The next ladies I talked to I told them I was from PA and this was my first and only time at their church and then kind of tried to dig myself out of the implication that I was a thrill-seeker getting baptized so I could come home and have a really cool story to tell. I dropped some words like "Kenya" and "obedience" and "conviction."

But that might be part of why I did it to be honest.

I also did it so I didn't have to make a big deal about it with all of my Christian friends (this includes my parents).  At home, I'd have to tell everybody and they'd all make a big deal (and probably cry and pray over me and come to the ceremony and cry more).  I'd have to take lots of classes to make sure i knew exactly what I was doing. Get it?

When I got baptized, nobody cried, nobody gave me wise words or said, "you've been washed in the Blood, sister." I did it for God and it wasn't about anyone else.

And honestly, I don't feel overcome with anything. I can just check it off as a big thing God says to do so when he comes back, I won't have to snap my fingers and go, oh shoot, I never got around to that.

There's a woman who came into the bathroom when I was changing and she told me she had gotten baptized (and implied that she got saved at the same day) three years ago. It changed her life, she said, and it will change my life, too. She told me to remember that when I fail (which I will), everything has been left behind in that water.  It's still taken away and paid for by God. That was beautiful.

I didn't care that she thought I had just come to Jesus. Each of us comes to Jesus each day anyway and Jesus sometimes rewards, celebrates, and honors the new workers in his vineyard more than the old ones. There's no shame in being new.