This morning I was baptized in Lake Muhazi, Rwanda, by my sweet friend Karly. This is something I’ve felt the Lord asking me to do since the beginning of the Race, but I just now had the opportunity to do. I was also baptized when I was 8 years old, but I want to tell you why this time was different and how I’ve changed since then.
I’d like to think that when I was 8 I took being baptized very seriously, but honestly I don’t remember that much about it. I do know that after, especially in high school and college, I did not have a relationship with Christ.
Yes, I went to church every time the doors were open and yes, I claimed to be a Christian, but I had no personal relationship with Christ. I spent so much time trying to achieve the outward appearance of a perfect Christian life that I completely neglected my internal prayer life and building intimacy with Him. God, to me, was just someone I could ask for stuff from and who I had to ask forgiveness from in order to go to heaven. He was an obligation.
A couple of years ago that all changed for me. I was in such a low place that all I could do was call out to Him. Over time, He went from being “the big guy in the sky” to my provider, my comforter, my protector, the love of my soul, my healer, my Papa, and my best friend.
Now a days, the appearance of perfection means nothing to me. From the outside, I may look like a big ol’ hot mess, but inside I have more joy and life than I ever believed was possible. He has taken my life and radically transformed it.
Today, I made the choice to publically make a declaration of the new life I have gained through Him. I am no longer dead in my sin, but I am alive in Christ!
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4
