I was baptized when I was fifteen, and it was an incredible experience. At that time, I was attending a Presbyterian church and the standard procedure there was to baptize by sprinkling only. Now, that's a theological rabbit I don't particularly want to chase, but I believe that Jesus was immersed, and in the same way I wanted to be immersed. Or, at least, my mom wanted me to be immersed. :-) So I made a special request with the pastor, who looked up the matter in the Official Book of All Things Presbyterian (or something like that) and he found that immersion was actually okay! He hadn't done many baptisms before, even sprinklings, because most of the people in that church were rather, um, aged, and were all baptized in like 1903 or something. Anyway...

I had to go before the board of deacons and make my request, and the pastor -- who is really a cool guy -- put in a good word for me. They accepted my request unanimously and the date was set. We didn't have a tub or pool or anything like that, but there was a nice lake outside of the church with a clean-water enclosed fountain thing over on the shore. We figured that would work pretty well, if the fountain jets were turned off. There was another problem though... The church didn't have any baptism robes. But that was a minor obstacle: We just went down and borrowed some from the neighborhood Baptist church!

When the day finally arrived, it was so awesome. The baptism was immediately after the church service and everybody in the church came out to see. It was, I think, the first baptism at that church in about 20 years or something like that, and the first immersion ever. Truly groundbreaking stuff, I say. So the whole congregation was gathered in a long line stretching halfway across the side of the lake, everybody craning to get a view. It was a beautiful day, and everything went perfectly.

Afterward, all the people from the church came to the reception to congratulate me, tell me the stories of when they were baptized, and of course, eat cake. It was good cake (I remember that detail especially). Basically, all of that stuff constitutes one of my fondest memories and I just had to share it here. Okay, so there were a lot of annoying church politics that I could have gladly done without, but mainly it was great. Since then, I have switched to another church, but not because of any issues with that one. My family moved to a very remote part of the state, and the Baptist church we attend now is one of the few around for miles. :-)

As far as my relationship with God is concerned, I'm sad to say that the actual baptism didn't do very much for it. Back then, I didn't take God very seriously. I mean, the baptism was very cool and stuff, but I think my faith was a lot more of a show than a real personal thing at that time in my life. Fortunately, I have grown much closer to the Lord since then and I'm definitely committed now. So I think that baptism is a wonderful symbolic event, and I believe that God really honors it, but it's not some miraculous deed that brings anyone closer to Him. If a person wants to be baptized, I think it's really good for that person to first be an honest, devout Christian (unlike me, when I did it). That's why I'm not an advocate of infant baptism. If a person does do it wrong though (like me), I'm sure God recognizes that person's change of heart later on and appreciates it just as much as the baptism of a committed follower. I don't think there's any need to be baptized a second time. That's the "amazing" part of "amazing" grace.

-useless"Oh, yeah, and congratulations, too, I forgot that part!!"ness