Doug Van Pelt

WHY I GOT BAPTIZED ... again

So, my church has an outdoor baptism at Emma Long Park in Austin each year. It's a state park along the dammed Colorado river, which becomes like a long and slender lake of sorts. Lots of people camp out there and there's lots of swimming and watercraft. The annual event likens back to the massive baptisms in the Pacific Ocean that Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa still has. Life Magazine documented some of these baptisms, which were like a visual icon of the Jesus Movement here in the West.

Our baptism yesterday was documented by the local paper (Austin American Statesman) and one of the local tv networks.

GOD MUST HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR
It's funny, because my reason for getting baptized is slightly weird or maybe even dumb, so I would have favored keeping it on the downlow. In fact, I have had the privilege of baptizing several people over the years and I wondered if they would freak out or wonder why I was getting baptized again. Those were two reasons why I didn't really want to draw attention to it, but then I was picked as one of several people that the tv news crew interviewed for the segment. That's funny. I guess what I thought might fly unnoticed under the radar wouldn't quite remain so hidden.

I was baptized at age 11, after I placed my faith in the Forgiveness Pact or Everlasting Covenant that God has made with man through His Son's substitutionary and sacrificial death on the cross. As much as an 11 year old could reason, I knew exactly what I was doing at the time and I was serious about following Jesus in the call to be baptized and in a personal relationship with Him. After about six months of that young walk, though, I slowly but surely slid away from that commitment on my end and became like a "Prodigal Son," living life to please myself instead of pleasing the God that created me. When I "came back" to the Lord 9 years later (at age 20), I didn't feel the need to get baptized. I figured the baptism at age 11 counted. I still feel that way. Even after friends got baptized to identify with their adult/rededicated life with Christ, I didn't feel the same need.

Years went by and I always kind of had the same conclusion whenever the subject came up. "What would my friends think? What about the people that I had baptized in the past? Would they think I was unqualified to baptism them back then?" When the topic came up this time, and thoughts like those, I figured they were dumb reasons not to get baptized. A couple years ago, one of the pastoral staff at Calvary Chapel Austin, a guy affectionately known as Bunjee, delivered a sermon about baptism. He said something like, "If you have any doubts or questions about being baptized now as an adult -- even if you had been baptized as a child, I say go for it." That attitude makes sense. Taken to an extreme (like getting baptized all the time) might be kind of dumb, but there's nothing wrong with re-visiting a ritual like that. Jesus told us to "do these things whenever we meet in His Name" (refering to communion and quite possibly foot washing, but that's another topic of conversation right there), so re-identifying with Christ in His death and resurrection certainly is not a bad thing.

It's funny, for me, it was really a "Why not?" kind of thing, which is exactly how that news segment edited my comments. I like to live my life like it's no big deal, because it really isn't. Hearing God's voice (like thoughts during prayer time), obeying Him, and believing that He hears my prayers really are not that big a deal. I really believe that the supernatural life is available to us, and it's really kind of a normal thing to know God and "walk" with Him. If we were created to have this relationship with Him, it shouldn't be a weird, freaky thing when He interacts with us.

Who knows? Maybe my thought of "Why not get baptized" thing was just a setup for God to do something I was not expecting nor had even imagined might happen.

It's fun when we find things out later on that resulted from something that was out of our control. One other funny example of that happened on Friday. I had an unusual dream that morning, where two former employees came over to hang out at the office. I thought it was unusual and I picked up my cell phone on my way out to the office to call both of them. I didn't have one of the guy's number in my address book, but there was another Jason in there -- a manager named Jason Fowler, who is putting together a festival that we are co-sponsoring (Revolution Calling). I called him later, because it made sense to touch base and make sure we both had "all our ducks in a row" for the upcoming festival. I just designed a bunch of postcards for him to get handed out at those tour dates. While talking to him, he told me that my 11-year old had asked him in an Instant Message if he had Hawk Nelson's IM address. That was obviously my daughter, who I let get on my computer while mowing the weeds out at the office. So, in a weird, round-about way, my dream prompted me to call a Jason, who I couldn't call but found another Jason that I should call -- all in order to "bust" my daughter in an action she needed to be lectured about (in just a sentence or two, of course). Ha ha. What are the odds of me calling that guy and finding out about her IM indescretion? That's kinda funny.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 17, 2007 04:44 PM