Immersing myself

Going down to the river and pray

Well this past 7 days has been pretty interesting. I have wanted to write about it for a while and more things keep on happening. Well the big news is I got Baptized at the church I attend two Fridays ago. I bet you weren’t expecting that. So why did I decide to get baptized? Lets start from the beginning, I have been a Christian since May 28, 1998 at 8:00 pm when I accepted Christ while bussing a table at Macaroni Grill in San Antonio. A lot of people told me about God, Jesus and I had even been going to church for awhile. After a while the idea of God sending his son to be a perfect sacrifice for all of man kind’s sins made sense in my head but never really in my heart. It was like figuring out a logic puzzle that I already knew the answer to. People were telling me the answer about who Jesus was but until I figured it out in my head and put all the pieces together I couldn’t really believe it. So thankfully, while bussing tables my mind wasn’t exactly occupied and things like eternal salvation could be sorted out.

So I accepted Christ and moved on. I had heard about being baptized but I thought to myself that I had already done that when I was a couple of months old. I didn’t know the reason for baptism and didn’t feel a need to get baptized as an adult for a long time. I’m not sure when but a while ago I decided that I should be baptized as an adult. Baptism has nothing to do with the validity of your salvation (some disagree with me on this but I feel the Bible is pretty clear) but at that time I saw it as a public statement of faith. Kind of like raising your hand and saying “Hey, I’m a Christian.” So, as I do with most things, I let it sit and stew in my mind for a while. I wanted to do it in the right church with my family and friends. Have somebody I knew well dunk me in and all that. Sometimes I forget about things that are stewing and the next thing you know you’re living in Qatar.

One night I was talking to a friend of mine. He asked me if I had ever been baptized as an adult and when I told him no, he said that if I had any questions that I could talk to him about it. So I thought and prayed about it some and turned the burner up a notch or two. While I was doing that I heard a sermon and in the end the guy said that if anybody has not been baptized and would like to talk to him find him after the service. So I did and we talked about basically what the purpose of being baptized is. It pretty much amounted to this. Being baptized is an outward demonstration of an inward action. When you have a Christian baptism you are demonstrating an inward repentance that you made and the acceptance that Christ paid for your sins. To get even deeper you are demonstrating that you’re dying to your old life and becoming alive in Christ. You are living in the knowledge that you are going to Heaven because Christ paid the way and gave you a ticket. Not only was being baptized practiced in the Bible it was also commanded. Jesus said go make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The pieces fit in my head and with that knowledge I decided there was no more need to wait. So instead of trying to make it perfect like you would make a wedding perfect. The right place, guest list, food etc. I decided that it would be perfect because it was what God said to do. So a couple of days later they filled up a big tub before the church service. I told a group of people, half of whom I didn’t know, why I was doing this. We prayed, I stepped in and got baptized. It was awesome. I truly felt like I was being obedient and in God’s will. During the service I got up and told everybody my reason for being baptized and hope that I made some sense. I had planned one thing but ended up saying something totally different. I even made a joke that I didn’t bring an outline but I don’t know if anybody got it.

Driving the Beast

I made another decision that was not so life changing. After driving the beast for about a week I realized that it was far too impractical to buy a car just because it was fun to drive. It could break down, the AC wasn’t the best, I topped out at about 55 mph. So I started driving my loaner car for a while and looking at a used car for myself. Well after going around in circles with some salesmen I had to return the beast to the guy that was selling it. I remember getting up and thinking man I don’t want to have to crank that thing up today. Then while driving to work I realized that I really liked it and I would be foolish not to buy it. I just figured since I’ve always appreciated and wanted to have one of these good ‘ol boy cars that this was the perfect time. So instead of making the logical decision I made an emotional one and bought the beast. When it breaks down for good I already have my eye set on and ’80s model LandCruiser truck. It kind of looks like the truck with the tire on the hood in Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Or I could change my mind and buy something practical.

SMS This

I presented my project to all of the Faculty and Staff this week. My little SMS gateway is up and running and people seem to like it. I’ve got some more stuff to work on and it is all nice and organized in my Access Database driven todo list. What else would you expect from and anal retentive software developer with ADD. I haven’t finished it yet but when I do I’ll put it online for the benefit of the world, or whoever reads this.

A lot of words, hope all is well with everybody.