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For the past year or so whenever we have baptisms at Ada, I get all giddy. I watch and smile, maybe even shed a tear or two, definitely get chills.

I find this quite interesting actually as I look back to my childhood and adolescents. I used to DREAD watching people get baptized. I always came away with some deep sense of guilt for not participating; a guilt that was mixed with a bit of satisfaction that I’d escaped baptism for one more year.

I knew that I should get baptized. I knew that if I was going to call myself a follower of Jesus I would eventually have to get into the tank and go under… and come back up. But for the longest time I just never ready to make that commitment. This may of course come as a surprise to many, but I’m just being real. I wanted to be committed to Jesus 100% (or at least 95.95%) before going under. I wasn’t going to do something I didn’t really want to do.

Well, as you gather from reading this blog, I’m committed. I did eventually decide that I was in this for the long haul, and when I was 17 I publicly professed my desire to follow Jesus and strive to know him deeply. While I know that I prayed a prayer asking Jesus “into my heart” when I was four, I look back at that Sunday night back in 1994 as really the beginning of my faith journey on so many levels. Perhaps the most significant is that was really the moment where my parent’s faith became my own.

For the past eight weeks, Ada Bible has been conducting baptisms after the Saturday night service.

Each service I fill with joy to hear the story and share in the milestone taking place. Most often, I have no relationship to the person getting baptized, yet we celebrate as if they are our best friends. Baptism has become for me one of the most beautiful expressions of faith.

This past Saturday night our good friend was baptized. As her story was read, Jenna and I are both crying, holding the kids so they can see too. Her story, like so many, was marked with ups and downs. The story was a beautiful testimony to an amazing God who loved and gave is perfect Son who sent the Spirit to move and grow us in becoming more like the Son. It was about following Jesus with a whole heart.

It was a good, good night. The baptisms made me smile and thankful for the opportunities we have to walk this journey with with such amazing people. Congratulations, dear friends, we are hear beside you each step of the way… we’re blessed to walk with you.