Throughout the past year, I have experienced an immense amount of growth in my faith and I have been so blessed with the people and the relationships that have been placed in my life. God has opened up my eyes in new ways this year and has taught me a lot about myself. Given this incredible growth-filled year, on February 18th, 2018 I decided to get baptized! The act of getting baptized has really confirmed the seriousness of my faith. I wanted to publicly declare my faith to my family, friends, and my church community, but I also wanted to have this event be something that could hold me accountable in the life that I live. The life of choosing others over self, love over hate, trust over fear, and a life lived in continual relationship with Jesus. Getting baptized was something that was long overdue and I am so excited that I get to share this with you all. With that being, here is a glimpse of the journey that God has taken me on this past year leading up to me getting baptized.
I have been attending a church called Commonwealth in San Diego, California for the past year and my time there has been incredible. I actually was able to be apart of their launch team and so through many months of leadership training, teachings, and good fellowship, I have built a church community that I have never constructed on my own before. Over the past year, I have learned how to pray for people and for healing, hear God better, and step into what God has planned for me with a trusting and faithful heart.
One of the big areas that I have stepped into in my faith has been the subject of prayer. Every Thursday from 5-7 PM Commonwealth does this thing called HOTS (Healing On The Streets) and they set out chairs in Balboa Park to pray for people and specifically to pray for healing. This has really stretched me in my faith, as I am not used to asking random people if they want prayer. Many people decline or walk past me like they don’t hear me, but some have said yes and I have been able to pray for people and it has been incredible to see how God has healed. One of my favorite prayer memories was when I saw an older man limping with his wife and so I asked him if he wanted prayer. He said that he did want prayer and so he sat down and my pastor, Nick Fox, and I prayed for his knee pain and his pain went from an 8 to a 0 and he walked away without a limp! These are the kind of moments that I cling too because it shows me that I serve a God that is living and real. Even though it might be uncomfortable or awkward to ask people if they want prayer, I have learned that the potential reward of seeing someone healed, leading someone to faith, or learning more and more about Jesus through prayer, far outweighs the “risk” of looking weird to the general public.
Another area where I have grown in my faith has been serving at church. For the past year, I have had the opportunity to serve on the Kids Team at Commonwealth and it is pretty remarkable the ways that Jesus has shaped and molded my heart. One of the biggest lessons I have learned while serving on the Kids Team is the ability to balance fun with intentional conversation. My favorite memories have been the times when I put smiles and laughter on kids’ faces during playtime but then connect on a deeper level with kids in small groups and in times of prayer. The ability to journey alongside these kids has been special and it has given me confidence in that I am someone who can lead and be used to help others in their faith journeys.
Lastly, I have been able to serve at school (PLNU) through Discipleship Ministries. I am involved in something called Alpha, which is a program that has students (called alpha leaders) lead small groups in freshmen dorms every week. I am a family group leader, which means that I lead a group of five alpha group leaders and this has been an incredible ministry opportunity for me. Given that my guys are just a year or two younger than me, it has been awesome to listen and to hear the hearts of these young men. Whether it is meeting guys 1-on-1 for burritos or hosting the group of guys over at my house for a basketball game, I have learned a ton from these young men in ways that have helped me think differently about my faith and how to lead well.
If I am being honest, I always wanted my baptism to be this perfect situation; in this perfect spot, with all of the people I love. That mentality did not carry the right motives as it consisted of immaturity, pride, and selfishness. I was thinking of how good I would look for Jesus and for all my family and friends. So with that being said, I decided to be baptized in a situation that was much more humble. And so I got baptized at my small church (which I love), outside at an elementary school. I was baptized in a kiddy pool…yes, you read that correctly. My 6’2” broad-shouldered self somehow managed to fit. None of my family members could make it because they were on a vacation up north in Bend, Oregon and through these circumstances, I learned that this decision to get baptized was not about the perfect situation or making my parents proud. Getting baptized, whether that be in a kiddy pool or in the Jordan River, was about publicly declaring my faith to my church community and acting in obedience to the Lord.
And now that I have been baptized where do I go from here? As I look forward to graduating in a little over two months, I still do not know what I will do or what path I will follow, but I do know that I want it to be His path. I want to learn more and more about what it means to live a life for Jesus and the love that he wants us to experience on a daily basis. As I have now publicly declared my faith through baptism to my church community and my family and friends, I’m excited to continue to grow deeper in my faith. It has been an exciting year and I cannot wait to see the steps that God leads me in next.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”