Common Sense Reborn

Washed Clean Part 1

¹⁸Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Let me tell you about yesterday.

I was baptized when I was much younger, probably around eight years old as part of my upbringing in a Baptist church. I do not even remember what I thought about sin or Jesus at the time. I do remember the baptism pool that sat to the right of the stage at First Baptist Church in good old Bradenton, FL. I can say for sure I did not understand what I was declaring through the act of baptism that day, many, many years ago. So I grew to be adult and I sinned a lot. I walked away from God (not intentionally) as soon as I graduated high school, stopped going to church, and started to chase after all the world had to offer. God was waiting a long time for me to turn back to Him, and I often wonder how long it would have taken me if not for one little miracle. That miracle was SGZ1, and when she blessed my life, three things happened. The first was I realized what unconditional love is. The second came when I read the Holy Bible, in its entirety, and learned God’s unconditional love for me. And because of those two, I realized that I wanted the world to know the God and Jesus I finally knew. Since then Msr. Z and I have become members of our church, we serve in the Kids Ministry, I have led Bible Studies on deployments and at home, we lead our kids to walk with Christ, I have launched this website, wrote one short book and three devotionals, and eagerly await every chance I get to share my testimony and the Good News to anyone with ears to hear.

Through all of that, I knew that I needed to be baptized, to make that public declaration of faith, because, as an adult who fully understands the weight of sin, I needed to be cleansed of all those mistakes. I have often been on the verge of walking to the stage at our church when we do spontaneous baptism services, but something always told me to wait. Part of me wanted to wait until I could afford to travel to Israel, then I would seek out a way to be baptized in the Jordan River, the very same river Jesus instructed John to baptize him in nearly 2,000 years ago. While that would have been an amazing experience, I can honestly say that the choice I made during this deployment, was a much more rewarding. A trip to Israel would have been all about me. None of this was for me.

The Bobr River was calling me from day one. When we first arrived at Boleslawiec, Poland (September 6 of last year seems like a lifetime ago), I saw the river out of our bus window with people kayaking, strolling along the path, sitting on the bank just admiring the beauty. As we got more free time and opportunities to explore “Boles” I started doing Saturday morning runs to the Bobr. In the fall, I would catch the sun rising from the east and it was mesmerizing.

There was something about this river and being over here in Poland that helped me make the decision shortly after Christmas: I was not going home without being baptized in the river. And I was going to lead as many Soldiers as possible to that same, life changing decision. Shortly after we wrapped up our last big exercise, I proposed the idea to the Chaplain here that we should do a Baptism event. We had some logistical issues (he was heading home early to prepare for a school for his career progression, the Division Chaplain was just coming in and having to be integrated), so we were not able to start advertising for the baptism event until after Easter. The Division Chaplain wanted to meet with me, discuss why I wanted to be baptized, and to make sure I understood what the act of baptism meant. We met on April 7, and the Chaplain said he would be honored to baptize me. But I told him this was not about me. It was about the Kingdom. While I needed to be baptized for my duty as a Christian, what I wanted was to lead others to the same decision I was at. The Chaplain stated he would be willing to baptize anyone interested, with one caveat: he wanted to meet with each individual before hand and have a discussion with them as well. Our Chaplain was against “spontaneous” baptisms. I understood his reasoning and went right to work creating flyers for our baptism event, which was originally scheduled for 21 April, the final Sunday before our first large group was to head home.

Within an hour of hanging the flyers I had a Soldier express interest through the messaging app we use to communicate here. My soul sang praises. By the end of the week, I had a second Soldier. I wish I could tell you that each day another Soldier stepped forward to participate in surrendering their life to Christ, but these are young American Soldiers, so most think the idea of a God who created all life is for the “old-heads”.

After the first week of advertising, the Chaplain discussing it at Sunday Service, and my brother-in-Christ speaking of it during the Bible Study we took over, we were sitting at just three Baptisms (counting myself). I can honestly say I was a little disappointed, but content because all I need is to grow the kingdom by one. If everyone did that, America would be in much better shape. We were able to gain one more participant when Poland showed us that we were silly to think the winter was over. When I set the date on April 7, the temperatures had reached the 80s. It seemed like the very day after I hung the flyers, we were back in the 30s/50s. On April 15, I made the tough call to push the Baptisms further to the right, through prayer and common sense, as the weather forecast for the 21st was showing the potential of snow flurries. Chaplain agreed it was the best decision (even though he roasted me in Service for being scared of the cold). The first large group of Soldiers homecoming date had been moved to the right as well, so we still had everyone in country for max participation. I printed out new flyers, and replaced the old, and just like the first time, within an hour another Soldier joined the chat expressing interest in being baptized. We were up to four.

Before I wrap up part 1, let me tell you how I know God is real. A week ago it was almost snowing, and had the weather not been so bad, it would have been just me being baptized, but God graced us with the most beautiful spring weather this morning, and while I was the only one of the four that expressed interest in being baptized by our Division Chaplain’s way, by changing the dates and hanging fresh flyers, I caught the attention of two younger Soldiers. A young lady in our National Guard unit came to me the night before the baptism to ask if she could participate. The window for her to meet with the Chaplain was closed, unless he could squeeze it in before church service on Sunday, but that would have been highly unlikely. It was okay because that Brother-in-Christ, I had mentioned earlier, we had come up with a work-around to the “no spontaneous” baptisms. The work around was us.