This Sunday, at our church's picnic after church, I had an amazing privilege. My youngest daughter, Abigail, came to me and said that she wanted to be baptized. (She understands the Gospel, has asked Jesus in to her life, and is already evangelizing multiple people.) When I asked her what it meant to her she said, "It means that I want to follow Jesus all of my life." So, I got to baptize her! It doesn't get much better than that!
I remember, in my early days pastoring, holding a baptism service at the nearby lake and wanting to understand it. I studied and studied all the deep meanings and the symbolism of it. I got really bogged down in all the theology surrounding it (not saying theology is bad, or understanding is bad). Then one mother about summed it up when she said something to the effect of, "Well, Jesus just said to do it. So, we do it."
This is, in no way, saying we shouldn't study, etc. That would be foolish! But, there are those times when we simply obey. We don't understand, but we don't rise to the arrogance of needing to understand God before we will obey Him. When I think about that I realize how silly it is to even think I might fully understand the mind of One who speaks a universe in to place when I struggle to understand how a cell phone works.
I wonder what this world would be like if all professing Christians simply obeyed what Jesus said. I wonder what inexplicable differences non believers would see in us if we only surrendered and obeyed. I tend to think they would see such a supernatural difference in us that they could only explain it by the indwelling presence of the Creator of all.
