April 25 – “In the shower”

We had the kind of day I like to have on Sundays.  I worked all week on how to present the story of Amnon raping his sister.  Hard to think in terms of comedy with that subject matter.  Nothing funny about it.  I went with the verse by verse approach.  During our encouragement time, when everyone is walking around shaking hands and exchanging hugs, a young guy about ten years old tapped me on the shoulder.  Keith said, "I was thinking about being baptized today."  I responded, "Oh, you were?  Today, huh?"  He stayed totally serious, "Yes, sir."  So I asked him if he had prayed and asked Jesus to take control of his life.  He answered immediately, "Oh, yes.  I prayed last night in the shower."  Well, it counts in the shower just as well as in a church building, so I got excited.  I hugged him and told him I was proud of him.  Then I asked, "Do you have your clothes with you to change into?"  See, I keep an extra bathing suit, t-shirt and towel in my office in case this sort of thing happens.  It's nice not to have to worry about filling up a tank of water and hoping it gets heated up in time.  We just head down to the beach.  He answered, "No, but I still want to get baptized."  I asked if he would rather tell everyone about it today and do the baptism next week.  He got a very forlorn look on his face, and replied, "No.  I think I would rather do it today."  Well, OK.  I asked if he had told his Mom and Dad.  "Not yet."  I knew his Mom and Dad, and I knew they would be fine with it, and they were both there today, so I told him to make sure to let them know, and we would definitely do it today.   The sermon went fine.  But it was not near as good as the baptism.  Plenty of folks stuck around and joined us at the beach.  His parents were proud.  So were we all.   Now the walk to the beach was interesting.  There was an ironman triathalon going on today, and the church is on the bicycle route.  They started at Moody Gardens and rode into Freeport somewhere and turned around and came back.  As a result our little intersection in Jamaica Beach was patrolled by several officers handling traffic duties.  And they were taking their job seriously.  They made sure those bicyclers were safe from us pedestrians.  When he let us cross the street he told us to hurry.  Then, when the last stragglers were crossing, a bicycle appeared around 200 yards away.  And he went ballistic, "Hurry up!  Run!  Run!"  And that's what he said to the pregnant lady.  He wasn't quite as vocal on the trip back.  But he sure gave everyone something to talk about.   Hebrews 3:12-13 says, "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."   Father, thanks for saving Keith.  Help him grow.  Amen.