This week, I heard Carrie Underwood’s new single “Something in the Water.” I couldn’t help but fall in love with the song. Every one who has experienced baptism can relate to this song. As a Christian, baptism is the next step in your walk with the Lord & I watched a few people take that step this morning at church. After each person was dunked in the water, the smile on my face was uncontrollable. Seeing people take the step in their faith humbles me & I can’t help think back on the day I took that step.
I accepted Christ when I was younger & was baptized then, but I don’t think I fully understood it nor lived up to it. It was just something my family presented me with to do in front of the church. So, when we started discussing “Next Steps” at Newspring, I felt led to decide it was time for me to be baptized for the right reasons. On March 3, 2013 I was changed by the water. Words can’t describe the feeling I had on & through out that day, really. It is the most full feeling there will ever be.
Since being baptized, I can say I have “fallen off my wagon,” but I am slowly getting back to where I think my life should be. I’ve realized that I’m truly blessed & it’s so amazing to see how fast God can open my eyes to his plan for me. Yes, I’m a Christian, I’m not claiming to be “holier than thou.” I’m just a simple sinner that’s received God’s good grace somehow. I know I can be the biggest hypocrite ever. I backslide, I stumble, I fall. I still stray on to the wrong path, but God is working in me. I may be a mess, but I’m his mess & he is slowly straightening me out. The day will come when I will be by his side, his work in me completed & until that day, I will let him do in me whatever needs to be done. When he is finished, it will all be worth it. My past isn’t perfect & I’m sure my future won’t be either, so being baptized, I’m professed that I am weak & need his strength to carry on, just like the people this morning at church did as well.
As I sit here & write this blog, I am listening to “Something in the Water.” In some of the closing verses it says:
“& now I’m singing along to amazing grace
Can’t nobody wipe this smile off my face
Got joy in my heart, angels on my side
Thank God almighty, I saw the light
Gonna look ahead, no turning back
Live every day, give it all that I have
Trust in someone bigger than me
Ever since the day that I believed I am changed
& now I’m stronger.
There must be something in the water”
While listening to it, my mind still goes back to the World Race & the untouched people I will be coming in contact with. I honestly can say, that with my whole well being, I want the people in those 11 countries around the world be changed by the grace of God & his water. Everyone deserves that full feeling I received the moment I was baptized. Everyone deserves to be changed & stronger. Like Pastor Noble said this morning, “In Christ your past doesn’t dictate your future.” I fully believe no one is too far from God. I pray that while I’m on the field for the 11 months, I will draw as many people as I can to the grace & love I have everyday & in the midst of it all, I want be changed even more.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” -2 Corinthians 5:17
“Something in the Water” by Carrie Underwood
