REST Day 34: Considering Resurrection
I can't believe Holy Week is here. And just like that, Easter comes.
Yesterday was a special Palm Sunday in my little book: I was baptized.
It was good. Sweet. Something I've long thought I should do, and it finally became something I wanted to do.
I made my agreement with Jesus when I was in about middle school/closing in on high school, where I fell on my knees, repentant, knowing with absolute certainty it was God's grace that would save my heart from myself, and I claimed Christ's merit alone for relationship with God. But baptism... well, that was a whole other thing.
To me, baptism felt weird and strange and too-much, too public, too showy, not really something my awkward self really wanted to do. I was content to know the Truth in my heart, pursue it in my daily life, and let that be that. Baptism was completely optional in my book.
So I resisted for years.
Even so, its significance nudged at me, talked to me, brushed my shoulder.
It wasn't until really parenthood and its realities began setting in that the picture of baptism began to make sense--the picture of the necessity of death (even little ones) to bring forth life; the profound necessity of sacrifice in any relationship; the nature of love to die to give life to another.
One day then, while I was watching Veggie Tales of all things with Lena, the cutesy character of Junior Asparagus innocently announced, "God's way is the best way."
And like a quiet lightning bolt, my last reservations were melted and my decision sealed.
If the Maker of the Universe merely asks us to go under the water to join in the life and resurrection of His Son and join the larger way of life, then I wanted to do it. I should do it. I finally could.
Without much fanfare I was able to talk with my pastor about a month ago, and yesterday, I went under the water and came back up.
The more I've thought about this and pondered the act of baptism, I've come to realize what I once thought was so strange, even seemingly divorced from the larger way of life--that which is, you know, kind of normal-- is in fact as normal as can be. Death and resurrection, burial and rising up, breaking and renewal are absolutely fundamental to the physical as well as spiritual world--something that is never more obvious than in spring:
A worm hides in a tomb--a chrysalis-- and is transformed.
A chick breaks its egg to emerge outside.
Old, dead things planted in the ground become living flowers, trees.
Therefore it is not so strange for humans to follow suit in the example set by Christ Himself (and others before Him). A picture, a symbol, a sacrament, baptism is a work of art we step into that follows nature's, and that is I believe, God's, laws and rules for renewal. It is a death to old things--a way of living apart from God and by one's own rules-- and becoming alive to God and His grace.
God's way is the best way.
So I claimed that afresh yesterday, my faith still the same, but my understanding deepened.
It was a good day to consider resurrection. It is a good week to celebrate Easter
JOURNAL PROMPT
Think about baptism in terms of resurrection. What does baptism mean to you/in your faith tradition? Does it feel far removed from life, or a natural part and picture of life? Why or why not? Does my perspective make sense to you, or not really? (Ha! It's totally okay if it doesn't, I just wonder if people wonder about the same things I do :D)
Yesterday was a special Palm Sunday in my little book: I was baptized.
It was good. Sweet. Something I've long thought I should do, and it finally became something I wanted to do.
I made my agreement with Jesus when I was in about middle school/closing in on high school, where I fell on my knees, repentant, knowing with absolute certainty it was God's grace that would save my heart from myself, and I claimed Christ's merit alone for relationship with God. But baptism... well, that was a whole other thing.
To me, baptism felt weird and strange and too-much, too public, too showy, not really something my awkward self really wanted to do. I was content to know the Truth in my heart, pursue it in my daily life, and let that be that. Baptism was completely optional in my book.
So I resisted for years.
Even so, its significance nudged at me, talked to me, brushed my shoulder.
It wasn't until really parenthood and its realities began setting in that the picture of baptism began to make sense--the picture of the necessity of death (even little ones) to bring forth life; the profound necessity of sacrifice in any relationship; the nature of love to die to give life to another.
One day then, while I was watching Veggie Tales of all things with Lena, the cutesy character of Junior Asparagus innocently announced, "God's way is the best way."
And like a quiet lightning bolt, my last reservations were melted and my decision sealed.
If the Maker of the Universe merely asks us to go under the water to join in the life and resurrection of His Son and join the larger way of life, then I wanted to do it. I should do it. I finally could.
Without much fanfare I was able to talk with my pastor about a month ago, and yesterday, I went under the water and came back up.
The more I've thought about this and pondered the act of baptism, I've come to realize what I once thought was so strange, even seemingly divorced from the larger way of life--that which is, you know, kind of normal-- is in fact as normal as can be. Death and resurrection, burial and rising up, breaking and renewal are absolutely fundamental to the physical as well as spiritual world--something that is never more obvious than in spring:
A worm hides in a tomb--a chrysalis-- and is transformed.
A chick breaks its egg to emerge outside.
Old, dead things planted in the ground become living flowers, trees.
Therefore it is not so strange for humans to follow suit in the example set by Christ Himself (and others before Him). A picture, a symbol, a sacrament, baptism is a work of art we step into that follows nature's, and that is I believe, God's, laws and rules for renewal. It is a death to old things--a way of living apart from God and by one's own rules-- and becoming alive to God and His grace.
God's way is the best way.
So I claimed that afresh yesterday, my faith still the same, but my understanding deepened.
It was a good day to consider resurrection. It is a good week to celebrate Easter
JOURNAL PROMPT
Think about baptism in terms of resurrection. What does baptism mean to you/in your faith tradition? Does it feel far removed from life, or a natural part and picture of life? Why or why not? Does my perspective make sense to you, or not really? (Ha! It's totally okay if it doesn't, I just wonder if people wonder about the same things I do :D)
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