The coincidence of two's

Last week I found a t-shirt of mine that I haven't seen in a long time that I got while I was a tour director in Alaska. It's from a tiny town called Chicken that has a population of 3 families and a horse. The next day I saw someone at the grocery store with the exact same shirt I briefly chatted with him about how he knew about it and then not 1 hr later I saw someone at the dog park with a Chicken Alaska shirt on. I've been trying to figure out if it's a sign and if so what of.

In the meantime, yesterday I was dropping my friend Elijah off at downtown and just as he got out of the car I heard a pop. Then as I pulled into traffic I could smell burning rubber. I was looking around and saw a stalled car not far up the road. By the time I pulled the 5 car lengths up there were massive flames coming out from under the car. I had my window down so I said to the guy in the passenger seat, "Dude your car is on fire." He looked at me quizzically so I repeated louder with pointing, "Your car is on fire." I took this brief moment to think about the fact that I was sitting next to a highly combustible object while in my own highly combustible object. There wasn't anything else that I could do so I yelled, "Your car is on fire!" and punched it. The car behind me yelled at them to get out of the car & by the time I hit the end of the block they were out and people were pulling over. My friend Drew suggested that I should have gotten out to see if any of them needed pastoral care but I retorted that they didn't need a pastor they needed a fire extinguisher.

This is where it gets crazy. A few hours later I'm sitting at small group, which was at my house, and Mary says, "I think there's a fire across the street. No, maybe it's just their BBQ." A few other people check it out, I look out the front door and sure enough our across the street neighbor, Rick's BBQ is fully on fire. So I bolt out the door & across the street yelling "Hey! Hey! Hey!" I didn't know his name at the time or I would have yelled that. He came out & put the fire out, we chatted for a couple of minutes and he assured me that he had another BBQ in back.
I have no doubt that these are merely coincidences but these seem highly improbable coincidences and therefore worthy to note. My roommate Nacole suggested that maybe I'm supposed to go to Chicken Alaska and start a fire, you know to help global warming. I'm not going to do that.

My First Baptism

When I worked at Evangel, the Christian bookstore, we would sell all sorts of "First Baptism" commemorative stuff; cards, plagues, figurines, pictures, bookmarks, etc. They're all made for the person getting baptized. Last week I had my first opportunity to do the baptizing and it was a very profound experience. I usually bawl my eyes out every time I get to watch a baptism because it's so beautiful to hear the journey that God has taken this person on in order to bring them to this time and place. This was very different though, to be standing next to someone who was bawling and reading their testimony was such an incredible honor that I found myself so stunned that I got to be a part of this moment in this way that I didn't even think to cry until later.

This was unlike the "typical" process. I didn't know the 2 women getting baptized, someone else got to talk them through the significance of what they were doing and it was in the middle of the day at Green Lake. For the record, I am not a fan of lakes and Green Lake ranks high on the list in terms of grossness. Not only were there sick looking fish darting around there were also curious ducks who kept swimming right close to where I was standing. I thought it through ahead of time and had total confidence as I waded in that even the worst case scenario wouldn't kill me, although being held down in Green Lake by a gaggle of ducks would be a horrible way to go. But day of I pulled it all together and focused on the women and how if I got a skin condition at least it would be in service to the Lord.

Being attacked by ducks aside, the significant part of the experience was not only telling people but being reminded myself of the covenant that baptism is. Earlier this quarter we talked in my worship class about our individual beliefs regarding baptism and how necessary it is to the individual's walk with Christ. I don't think baptism is required in order to have a relationship with Christ, be in community with believers or spend eternity with both of the aforementioned parties but I do think that it's an outward sign of what is going on internally. And similar to marriage when one is in the place where they are willing to commit to the best of their knowledge the rest of their lives to this relationship and invite the community into that covenant relationship, it's worth celebrating and shedding a few tears over.

My own baptism was life changing for me, I can't articulate why that act changed things but there was a shift and the following months I grew in my relationship with God dramatically, heard his call to leadership and service, wanted to be in close community with those around me and desired to know him more. Since then, of course, there have been ups and downs within our relationship and my interaction with the community but the covenant remains and there is comfort & strength in that commitment.

So it was a big notable day for me & while I might not get a card or any sort of memento of my "first baptism" there is no doubt that I won't soon forget it and I will be forever honored that these women allowed me to speak into their lives & baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.