Throughout the month of June I want to focus a little more narrowly on this blog onto the subject of baptism. Why does it matter? What does it do? How are we changed by this ritual? I started the discussion on this topic last month with a post imploring people to take baptism seriously (which you can read here) and now I want to continue interspersing discussion and exhortation on the matter with baptismal testimonies. Stories of what obedience in baptism has meant in the lives of real people like you and me.
We're starting today with a testimony from my friend Pete Nojd - but I'd love to hear your testimony too. I'm looking for baptism stories in particular from the EAC family. If you have been
baptized and would be willing to share your story with the church I
would appreciate it. You don't even have to have been baptized at EAC - I
just want to hear about why you made the decision? What helped you get
over the hump and actually get in the water? And how that decision has
effected (affected? I can never remember which one)
your Christian walk. Keep your stories to between 1/
Every once in a while I look back at the person I was
throughout my teenage years, especially as I neared the end of adolescence. It
was a rough ride both for me and for my family. I had the blessing of growing
up in a Christian home, and although this would serve me well in the future, the
“Jesus” thing didn't seem to take root in my teens. My life was characterized
by drug use, run-ins with the law, and educational failure, and these realities
converged to create an overall lack of hope, both for the world and for me
personally. I didn't feel that I was anyone special, and at the same time felt
let down by “the system.” I wondered who would really ever care for me (outside
my parents who I often fought with), and why they should anyway.
Some people have one big experience that changes their
life, and others have a string of experiences that result in gradual change.
God chose to speak to me in the former. Although I had had enough experiences,
good and bad, that might bring most people to change or at least re-think their
lives, I hadn’t. It wasn’t until I had just turned 18 that Jesus decided to
knock me in the head with a spiritual 2X4.
To this point I had been a pothead for 4 years, and
experimented with harder drugs. I was in my 4th year of High School
but had yet to pass Grade 9. I was known to police but didn’t know myself. A
couple years earlier our church got a new Youth Pastor who had invested deeply
into my life. I appreciated him and his influence, but I was resisting the
temptation to cut the garbage out of my life in exchange for Jesus. I still
wanted to be in control, and worse yet, I thought I was. I had always assumed
that my reckless and rebellious ways were just a phase, and that everything
would magically work out in the end. But that kind of thinking came to a halt
soon after my 18th birthday when I was busted for Break and Enter. I
wasn’t a crazed-criminal, I was simply lost. When you live a life with no hope,
you do things you would never have imagined possible. Breaking into someone’s house
was something I never would have thought I would or could ever do, but I did.
Having just turned 18 my name was put in the paper, and I was tried in court as
an adult. The one night I spent in the local police jail was enough for me, but
I didn’t know if it would be enough for the judge.
I expected a brawl when I returned home. I always fought
(verbally) with my parents. They often grounded me for bad behaviour and broken
curfews, but this was different. They
were different. Instead of a lashing, my parents looked as if even they had
lost hope – having tried everything with no solutions. If the story ended
there, my story and my life would certainly be hopeless.
But through that experience God spoke to me and perhaps
for the first time, I listened. He didn’t have to show me that I was a wreck in
“controlling” my own life – the evidence was all there – but He did reveal to
me that He was the answer not just for me but for the world – for the system. I
decided at that point that I wanted to give my life to Him – I wanted to be a
follower of Jesus Christ.
My Youth Pastor (who I remain great friends with to this
day) encouraged me to take the first step in following Jesus – to be baptized.
The day I was baptized is a day I will never forget; in front of friends,
family, and a bunch of people who had never stopped praying for me. Although I
have since moved from church family to church family, it never ceases to amaze
me when I run into someone from Bramalea Alliance Church who tells me that they
used to pray for me daily. Looking back over the years, I barely recognize the
person I used to be, but what’s more is that I can’t ever think of a time when
Jesus has let me down or dashed my hope. Getting baptized set me out on an
adventure that I never knew existed prior – not in the ceremony itself – but in
knowing that I was going to follow Jesus from here on out whether in good times
or in bad, in my failures or in my victories. Jesus has since called me into
ministry and there’s nothing I love more than to share hope with the people
like me who need it. That has been a long-lasting passion of mine since the day
I decided to follow Jesus.
My hope is not only for a future eternity, but it’s a
hope that is realized and fulfilled as I continue to walk with and follow Jesus
today.
Pete Nojd.
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