a celebration of freedom!

During one of our revival nights of worship in training camp, we also did baptisms. Growing up, I always understood baptism as being a symbol of salvation. So in training camp when my fellow racers were getting baptized for other reasons such as “freedom from ___” or as “an act of gratitude for ____”, I didn’t really understand that baptism could mean more than salvation. And that’s when Jesus turned my lightbulb upstairs on- baptism does not define our salvation. Baptism is an outward representation of an inward transformation.

I didn’t think much about baptism after training camp, that is, until we got to South Africa. In the house where another squad was staying, they had a whiteboard for their weekly schedule and one of the days said “Beach Baptism”. As I read those words, all of my preconceived notions of baptism came flooding back. “They’re almost done with their race, what could they be getting baptized for?” And the Lord reminded me of what I realized in training camp: baptism is an outward representation of an internal transformation.

Later that night, the Lord put it on my heart to be baptized. Christ has been so faithful to take me through two specific seasons of walking me out of my sin struggles of anger (as I talked about in my blog, “My Beloved”) and of shame (as I talked about in “gratitude”). I wanted to outwardly express my thankfulness to the Father for His faithfulness through the representation of my sin dying with Christ, but not being resurrected with Him because it stayed buried in the grave.

After talking with Ally, my squad leader, we arranged a time for her to baptize me in the ocean (which was in and of itself a miracle because I’m terrified of sharks). Teams Harvest and Naya did some worship on the beach, praising our Creator, and then Ally read scripture over me, prayed for me, and baptized me! After we hung out at the beach a little while longer, we went to McDonalds to get some celebratory ice cream!

I’m so thankful for the testimony I have and all of the freedom the Lord has brought to my life over these last few months. I’m also so thankful for a community of people to walk the hard roads with and who also rejoice with me in all God is doing! “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Romans 5:1

If you have any specific questions regarding my testimony or baptism, don’t hesitate to reach out!