January 21, 2018 is not a date I will soon be forgetting. Today I decided to be baptized at my college church, and let me tell ya, it’s been a wild day.
Even though my family couldn’t be here (thank goodness for technology though!), I have some phenomenal friends who are my college family (sorry mom, I forgot to get a picture of all of us). When we were sitting in worship tonight, I kept looking up and down my row and tearing up because of who these women are. I would be doing you an injustice if I didn’t explain:
Casey challenges me more and more to honor Jesus with all that I am.
Mak challenges me to seek Jesus first and lean on Him.
Christina challenges me to see myself through Jesus’ lens, not the lens of the world. And constantly reminds me that God abides in honest, vulnerable communication.
Bethie challenges me to choose joy because the joy of the Lord is my strength.
Emily challenges me to live authentically and obediently for the sake of the Kingdom.
There are a few more that I wish could have been there because of their impact on me and my faith, but I know they are thanking the Lord for this bold step of obedience from where they are. I am beyond blessed to call these women my friends. They point me to the foot of the cross, and I am forever thankful for who they are.
I was asked to write a blurb about why I wanted to be baptized and what the Lord had been teaching me and how I ended up at today, and my first draft was too long. So was the second draft. I finally ended up with a six (ish) sentence story, but I figured this would be the best place to share the entire thing. So, for those of you wondering – here’s the scoop:
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know Jesus. I grew up in the church and both of my parents are pastors. Baptism has always been taught and emphasized but I always felt pressured into it, so I stubbornly held my ground that I would not be baptized until I made the decision for myself. Each year, I pick a word for the year and my word for 2017 was obedience. And let me tell you, lessons in obedience are hard. I could tell you story after story of how God asked me to obediently follow where he was leading, but we would be here all night. Over the past year, anytime baptism is mentioned, I felt prompted to sign up, but always came up with an excuse and said “next time.” In fact, I was going to sign up for this baptism service a while ago, but had a great excuse that I would be out of town. Then, my plans changed last minute and I signed up to serve for the 10:30 service and this one. While sitting in the earlier service, the Holy Spirit directed me to old church notes in my journal where I had written “delayed obedience is actually disobedience.” And I knew that I needed to do this. My word for 2018 is wholehearted. And baptism is the perfect way to start a year that will be marked by wholeheartedly pursuing the Lord. I’m getting baptized today because I love Jesus more and more each day and I want others to see Him through my obedience. All I am is for His glory.