Why I was Baptized

So it’s been awhile since I’ve been on here (a long while!).  The last time I updated my blog, I had just graduated from college and was moving to DC to start an internship and hopefully land a job. A lot has happened since then. I have been working at a great job at the American Bar Association since December and have been spending my time making friends and falling even more in love with the nation’s capital.

Last week was a big week for me for two reasons. First, last Monday marked one year since I moved to DC. Sometimes I can’t believe that a year has flown by so quickly but other times, it seems like I’ve lived here forever. I love this city so much and am excited to spend another year (and hopefully many more) here.

The second and even bigger event that happened last week was that I was baptized at my church in DC. I have been following Jesus for years and was also baptized as a baby, but I really felt called by God to be obedient and be baptized. Some people have asked me why now? So I thought this would be a good place to explain how I came to this decision.

I grew up going to a church where I was baptized as a baby. Many of you are probably familiar with this type of baptism. It’s done as a symbol of the covenant that God made to His people in the Old Testament. Instead of being “dunked” in water (also known as believer’s baptism or full immersion baptism), you’re “sprinkled”, which is also a symbol of the sprinkling of blood when animal sacrifices were made in the temple.  It was a practice that I accepted as I grew older, but never really understood how it was Biblical. I never thought of baptism as being something that a Christian must do to earn salvation (I still hold this belief). I think that God is more concerned with the condition of our hearts and the thoughts in our heads than whether or not we have been baptized.

When I went to college, I had a few friends that would badger me and criticize me for the fact that I had not been baptized as a believer. While I know that their actions and words were well intended, it made me feel like I was a second class Christian. I even dated a guy that talked to me for two hours about how I needed to be baptized because it was what Jesus did. I did have some friends who would lovingly show me why it was Biblical while also not making me feel like I was any different than any other believer.  While I didn’t really understand how being baptized as a baby was Biblical, I didn’t see the need for me to be rebaptized because it wasn’t something that was necessary for my salvation.

Sharing why I wanted to get baptized,

So what changed? Why did I all of a sudden feel the need to be baptized? Well if any of you know me, you know that this past year has been a relatively hard one for me. I felt temptation and fell to sin continuously. I had very little community in DC and wasn’t growing spiritually at all. I was without a paying job for four months and had very few friends when I first moved up here. There were times that I had been very apathetic about my faith and was tired of trying to live for Christ. Yet even through all of this, God remained faithful to me. He has and continues to renew my love for Him. I also found a PHENOMENAL church in DC (you can check them out here: http://www.redemptionhilldc.org/) that I am so thankful to be a part of and love the relationships that the Lord has already formed in such a short period of time.

After talking to my pastor about being baptized, I decided that it really was the right thing for me to do it. I wasn’t baptized for anyone but myself and Jesus. It was a public profession of faith but it was also to remind myself that I am one with Christ and I am sealed with the Holy Spirit. This had nothing to do with my salvation, I was a Christian before I was baptized last Sunday and I continue to be one today. Nothing really changed from before and after (except the fact that I wasn’t nearly as dry before!). I felt the same. While nothing changed, I know it was the right thing to do. We are called to be baptized and I wanted to be obedient.

I’m not going to become one of those people that encourages every single person that was sprinkled to be dunked. Some people sincerely believe that being sprinkled is Biblical and I respect and understand that view. I would encourage anyone to pray and consider about what is the Godliest thing to do. It’s a decision that can only be made by the person being baptized, and no one else. 

Some of the amazing people in my community group