For a more complete backstory, read this post I wrote a while ago.
After what seems like an eternity of going through my spiritual journey, I have decided to trust my heart and follow my faith, which is a journey I am happy to continue to pursue for the rest of my life.
Since I can now confidently say I am a Christian, I wanted to follow my heart and show a symbol of my faith.
I was baptized as a baby, but as I grew up, I turned away from God. But over the past few years, I have felt him continuing to guide my life, and now I am finally listening. Because this is the first time in my life I have actually felt this way and decided to follow Him, taking the plunge became more and more important to me.
On the Friday before, there was a pre-baptism meeting and celebration, and I decided to invite Kristen's grandparents and aunt & uncle along. After the logistical announcements, we got to share our stories of how we came to faith around our small table. Afterwords, they announced that they would like a few people to share their story on video to possibly be part of the Sunday service, so I decided to give it a shot. After a few takes, I told my story, and we prepared for Sunday.
As a special treat, Kristen's mom flew in from Idaho to share the special day with us. We invited a handful of friends and Kristen's family came again, so it was fun to have a cheering section. Our pastor gave the sermon, and then it was show time. Between the two services, almost 200 people were baptized, so it was quite the production. While we waited to start, they played the video of people sharing their stories, which was really inspiring. And there I was, the grand finale of the video... the final thoughts before the baptisms began. I looked back at the cheering section and all I saw were tears.
Kristen came with me on the stage to share the moment with me. I was toward the end, so after over a hundred people took the plunge before me, it was my turn. I got into the tub, shared a few words with the pastors doing the dunking, and held my breath.
It was a really cool experience, magnified by the fact that I was able to share it with some great people.
And the celebration? Wings and football at BDubs!
