I GOT REBAPTIZED!!!!
About a month into the race, I knew that I wanted to get rebaptized. I was raised in a Baptist church and could not wait for the day that I would get dunked. My parents always told me that that day would come when I was ready and man, I wanted to be ready sooo bad but I knew that I wasn’t.
Then I moved to a Methodist church and I was confirmed there in sixth grade. But in order to be confirmed, I had to be baptized first. And I was super excited… until I found it was just going to be a sprinkle of water on my forehead. I was disappointed because I had grown up seeing people being fully immersed in the water to show that they were dying to sin and being raised to new life with Christ. Then when the time came, it felt like it was just checking off a box, just getting it out of the way so that I could confirm that my faith was in Jesus Christ. Very underwhelming.
When I realized that I wanted to be rebaptized, I knew that I still wasn’t ready in that moment (and I was secretly holding on this hope that I could be rebaptized in another country and have a cool story about it). But, as He so often does, God had other things planned.
My team was having dinner together to celebrate the growth that we’ve experienced these past two months on the Race. We were sharing all the sweet things we’ve learned and my teammate said that she learned she could have this deep intimacy with the Lord anywhere, that it wasn’t just for the World Race, it was for life. And that’s actually been one of my biggest fears – that I won’t take this with me when these 9 months are over.
After dinner we worshipped. The first song was “Promises” by Maverick City. In the bridge it says, “In the middle of the storm, in the middle of my trials, I’ll still bless you,” and the Lord told me that there is no going back now. And I’m just thinking, “Really? Are you sure God? There’s still so much I need to work on, temptations that I’m not sure I’m not strong enough to resist yet.” The last song was called “Man of Your Word” and it’s all about how God keeps his promises. Over and over again it declares that if He said it, we believe it. So as I’m singing the words, “If you said it, we believe it,” the Lord asks me, “I said it, that there’s no going back, so why don’t you believe it?”
And I said, “Okay God, whatever you say.”
The next day our squad leader our squad leader is leading devotionals and she gives us all these passages where the Bible talks about baptism. We all read them before coming together to discuss them as a squad. Then she tells us that we received permission to go to the local lake to do baptisms and that anyone who wanted to be baptized or rebaptized should pray into that decision.
I knew that this was my chance, that this is what I was supposed to do, but I kept waiting for signs and confirmation. And even though the Lord had already told me that there was no going back, He proved faithful is dismissing every doubt that I had. I thought that my faith wasn’t strong enough yet and our speaker that day brought up Hebrews 11 which is about all these people in the Bible who did great things, all by faith. In verse 34 it says their “weaknesses were turned to strength”. So the Lord took that excuse away from me and told me that it wasn’t about my strength, and my ability, but His strength and His ability which never fails.
So I did the dang thing!! (AND God still made a cool story out of it!)
That afternoon, my team leader and two squad leaders who have spoken so much into my identity these past two months baptized me the frigid waters of Lake Lanier.
Over half of my squad was dunked that day. Twenty-six people reborn. Thanks, God.
